JAPAN 

TO-DAY 

AND 

TO-MORROW 


HAMILTON  WRIGHT-  MARIE 


UNIVERSITY 
AT    1C! 


JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 


THE  MACMIIXAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN   &   CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


Fug/,  the  Sacred  Mountain 


JAPAN 

TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 


BY 
HAMILTON   WRIGHT   MABIE 

AUTHOR  OF  "AMERICAN  IDEALS,  CHARACTER  AND  LIFE' 


Xfcfo  ffotfe 

THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

1914 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1913,  and  1914,  by  The  Outlook  Company. 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October,  1914. 


Norfaoot)  Iprrsa 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


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s\^  TSUNEJIKO   MIYAOKA 

INAZO   NITOBE 
EIJIRO   ONO 

"WISE   COUNSELORS 

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LOYAL    FRIENDS 


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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 1 

II.  TIJE  BACKGROUND 8 

III.  THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO 25 

IV.  IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE 43 

V.  PRICE  MARKS  AND  VALUES       ....  61 

VI.  EAST  AND  WEST 75 

VII.  THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO 89 

VIII.  VILLAGE  HOMES  AND  PEOPLE   ....  104 

IX.  HOLIDAYS  IN  KAMAKURA 116 

X.  KYOTO,  THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL          .         .         .  132 

XL  NIKKO,  THE  "  SUNNY  SPLENDOR  "     .        .        .  152 

XII.  THE  INLAND  SEA 167 

XIII.  AT  PORT  ARTHUR 182 

XIV.  THE  JAPANESE  HAND 190 

XV.  THEATERS  AND  PLAYS 201 

XVI.  PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES 220 

XVII.  COUNT  OKUMA 237 

XVIII.  A  JAPANESE  PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN        .  246 

XIX.  THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE       .        .        .  269 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fugi,  the  Sacred  Mountain      .        .        .        Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Pagoda  at  Nikko 22 

A  Bice  Field 38 

Hostess  and  Visitor .62 

Smiling  Childhood 70 

In  Harvest  Time 110 

Good  Friends 116 

The  Children's  Meal 130 

The  Golden  Pavilion  in  Winter        ....  148 

A  Famous  Shrine  at  Nikko 156 

The  Cryptomeria  Avenue  at  Nikko          .         .         .  166 

A  Characteristic  Landscape     .....  180 

A  Bit  of  Garden 192 

A  Shinto  Priest  and  Attendants       ....  222 

The  Great  Buddha 234 

Count  Okuma,  the  Prime  Minister  ....  242 


JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MOKKOW 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   POINT   OF  VIEW 

No  attempt  is  made  in  this  book  to  describe  in 
detail  the  Japan  of  to-day  as  the  traveler  sees  it 
in  its  schools,  industries,  banking,  administra- 
tion, army  and  navy  organization  and  activity; 
reports  of  the  changes  and  developments  of  the 
last  sixty  years  may  be  found  in  an  increasing 
literature  of  information.  It  is  a  story  of  such 
dramatic  interest,  of  such  striking  contrasts,  of 
such  rapid  changes  of  external  occupation,  methods 
of  work  and  habits  of  life,  that  it  has  found  many 
recorders. 

Never  before  in  historic  times  has  the  trans- 
formation of  a  civilization  been  accomplished  with 
such  intrepid  intelligence  or  with  such  efficiency. 
Japan  has  changed  occupations,  tools  and  methods, 


2         JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

and  these  changes  have  a  significance  for  the 
world  which  is  only  beginning  to  be  seen. 

The  world  has  known  Japan  barely  sixty  years, 
and  has  assumed  that  the  Japan  of  twTenty-five 
hundred  years  has  been  superseded  by  the  Japan 
of  To-Day.  It  is  true  that  the  changes  of  sixty 
years  have  not  only  brought  the  country  into  active 
relations  with  the  world  but  have  created  a  kind 
of  common  dialect  through  which  the  Western  races 
are  learning  something  about  the  Japanese ;  but 
it  is  far  easier  for  the  West  to  understand  Japanese 
skill  than  Japanese  character,  Japanese  industry 
and  sagacity  in  practical  affairs  than  Japanese 
art,  the  Japanese  facility  in  adaptation  than  the 
persistency  and  power  of  the  Japanese  genius. 

Modern  Japan  is  old  Japan  turning  its  attention 
to  business  and  arming  itself,  as  its  neighbors  were 
arming  themselves  while  it  was  in  seclusion. 
There  is  no  new  Japan ;  there  is  an  old  Japan 
expressing  itself  in  the  language  of  modern  in- 
dustry and  science. 

These  remote  people  who  used  to  be  months 
distant  in  point  of  time  are  now  ten  days  from  the 


THE  POINT   OF  VIEW  3 

Pacific  coast  and  two  weeks  from  New  York. 
They  have  become  our  neighbors,  and  having 
come  into  the  same  neighborhood  it  is  of  immense 
importance  that  we  should  know  what  manner 
of  people  they  are.  Their  occupations,  ways  of 
doing  things,  the  external  forms  of  their  life,  are 
immensely  interesting,  but  these  things  are  im- 
portant chiefly  as  they  contribute  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  character  of  the  people  behind  them. 

The  real  question  is  not  "what  do  the  Japanese 
do  and  how  do  they  do  it,"  but  "of  what  spirit 
are  they  and  for  what  do  they  care  most?"  In 
becoming  our  neighbors  and  adopting  many  of 
our  customs  and  tools  the  Japanese  have  not 
changed  their  character.  Even  when  a  people 
modifies  its  ideals  it  does  not  change  its  essential 
nature ;  it  takes  a  new  road  to  a  different  destina- 
tion, but  it  follows  the  new  way  with  the  courage 
and  energy  or  the  timidity  and  lassitude  with 
which  it  pursued  the  old  path. 

The  contribution  of  a  race  to  the  common  fund 
of  faith,  ideas,  knowledge,  art  and  manners  which 
we  call  civilization  is  always  a  matter  of  the 


4        JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

spirit :  if  it  takes  a  material  form,  like  an  inde- 
structible road,  a  temple,  a  statue,  an  aqueduct 
or  bridge,  its  chief  value  lies  in  its  disclosure  of 
the  genius  which  fashioned  it.  The  individuality 
of  a  race  is  in  its  genius,  and  whenever  it  gives  to 
the  world  its  own  original  gift — itself — it  gives  its 
genius  in  some  form.  The  Japan  of  To-Day  is  the 
Japan  of  Yesterday,  and  the  Japan  of  To-Mor- 
row  will  be  the  Japan  of  To-Day.  The  Daimyo 
has  given  place  to  the  practical  statesman,  the 
Samurai  has  been  succeeded  by  the  professional 
man;  the  teacher,  the  banker ;  for  the  moment  and 
for  years  to  come  there  will  be  much  disturbance 
and  confusion  in  Japan ;  but  the  old  heroic  tem- 
per has  already  flashed  out  on  fiercely  contested 
fields.  The  old  stoicism  is  seen  in  the  spirited 
resolution  with  which  Japan  endures  the  ill-con- 
cealed assumption  of  superiority  on  the  part  of 
the  West,  the  old  patience  of  conscientious  crafts- 
manship reveals  itself  in  the  passionate  eagerness 
for  education  and  the  heroic  persuit  of  it  in  loneli- 
ness and  exile  ;  while  those  who  fail  to  find  to-day, 
in  many  forms  and  in  many  men,  the  ancient 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  5 

chivalry  which  was  the  soul  of  Bushido,  have 
barely  touched  the  hem  of  the  garment  of  the 
Japanese  spirit. 

To  know  this  spirit  is  a  matter  of  immense  im- 
portance to  the  modern  world  in  which  Japan  will 
play  a  conspicuous  part.  What  manner  of  man 
is  the  Japanese  ?  Is  he  the  unscrupulous  schemer 
with  a  gift  for  dissimulation  in  whom  some  people 
in  the  West  see  a  dangerous  foe  in  the  future ; 
or  has  he  a  high  ideal  for  his  country,  a  pas- 
sionate aspiration  to  be  a  leader  in  the  awakened 
East,  to  interpret  the  East  to  the  West,  to  win 
a  place  among  the  Great  Powers,  not  for  ag- 
gression but  for  the  furtherance  of  those  things 
which  make  for  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the 
world  ? 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  to  be  found  in 
the  spirit  and  character  of  the  Japanese  people, 
and  the  spirit  and  character  are  to  be  sought  in 
their  reflection  in  the  vital  landscape  of  Japan,  in 
its  attitude  toward  nature  and  religion,  its  social 
habits,  its  tastes  and  recreations,  its  historic 
ideals,  the  qualities  of  body  and  mind  formed  by  its 


6        JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

long  historic   discipline,   its  instinctive    reaction 
under  the  stimulus  of  new  conditions. 

They  are  to  be  found,  too,  in  its  strength  rather 
than  in  its  weakness,  in  its  constructive  ability 
and  habit.  The  weaknesses  and  defects  of  a 
people  retard  its  development  but  do  not  indicate 
its  direction  nor  afford  material  for  sound  judg- 
ment of  its  potential  growth  and  power.  That 
Japan  needs  criticism  is  obvious  to  any  one  who 
knows  the  institutions  and  present  life  of  the 
country ;  that  the  Japanese  are  criticizing  them- 
selves is  characteristic  of  a  people  who  are  eager 
not  only  for  education  but  for  the  results  of  educa- 
tion. But  what  Americans  need  is  not  criticism 
of  Japan  but  knowledge  of  its  spirit  and  temper. 
The  source  of  anti-Japanese  feeling  in  this  country 
is  not  so  much  race  antagonism  as  ignorance  of 
Japanese  history  and  character.  In  view  of  the 
immense  importance  of  the  relations  between 
the  East  and  the  West  in  the  near  future  this 
ignorance  on  the  part  of  many  men  of  official 
position  is  in  the  last  degree  dangerous  to  the 
prosperity  of  and  well-being  of  the  modern  world. 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  7 

In  dealing  with  Japanese  laborers  in  this  country 
we  are  dealing  not  with  individual  immigrants, 
but  with  a  powerful  government  and  with  a  nation 
as  sensitive  and  self-respecting  as  our  own  nation. 
To  know  the  genius  of  the  Japanese  is  not  an 
imaginary  obligation  born  of  an  altruistic  tempera- 
ment ;  it  is  a  plain  duty  imposed  by  common 
sense ;  to  urge  courtesy  and  intelligent  considera- 
tion in  dealing  with  them  is  as  far  removed  from 
sentimentalism  as  knowledge  is  from  ignorance. 

In  this  book  the  attempt  is  made  to  convey  an 
impression  of  the  genius  of  the  Japanese  people, 
not  by  definition  nor  by  characterization,  but 
by  making  clear  its  reflection  in  the  vital  land- 
scape of  the  country.  The  genius  of  a  people 
eludes  the  direct  search  for  it,  but  reveals  itself  in 
shops  and  fields  and  homes  more  clearly  than  in 
universities  and  courts.  And  this  is  especially 
true  of  a  people  whose  government  has  been 
religious,  whose  religion  has  been  governmental, 
and  whose  whole  organized  life  has  been  like  a 
garment  woven  out  of  the  substance  which  it 
clothes  but  does  not  conceal. 


THE   BACKGROUND 

FIFTY-SIX  years  before  Commodore  Perry  en- 
tered the  bay  of  Yeddo  and  set  a  tidal  wave  of 
change  in  motion  there  appeared  in  Japan  one 
of  those  men  of  pictorial  genius  who  paint  history 
instead  of  writing  it  and  confer  on  the  time  in 
which  they  live  a  kind  of  graphic  immortality. 
Old  Japan  was  intensely  conventional ;  society 
was  rigidly  arranged  in  tiers,  like  the  dolls  which 
Japanese  girls  place  in  the  order  of  rank ;  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  at  the  top  in  regal  apparel, 
and  below  them,  in  diminishing  splendor,  the 
stages  of  descent  to  the  servants.  Customs  had 
the  authority  of  law ;  were,  indeed,  the  laws  that 
bound  all  classes  together,  kept  each  class  in  its 
place  and  held  the  nation  in  a  picturesque  but 
inviolable  order.  Art,  in  various  forms,  had  be- 
come a  language  used  with  exquisite  skill  and  with 

8 


THE  BACKGROUND  9 

many  delicate  modulations  of  accent  and  shiftings 
of  emphasis,  and  conveying  a  group  of  impressions 
ample  in  the  opportunities  they  offered  to  sensitive 
feeling  and  craftsmanship,  but  sharply  limiting  the 
artist  in  subject  and  manner. 

In  this  orderly  rule  of  a  classicism  essentially 
different  from  ours  in  point  of  view  and  in  method, 
but  like  it  in  emphasis  on  regularity  and  emotional 
reticence,  came  the  first  Hiroshige,  like  Victor 
Hugo  among  the  classicists,  or  Walt  Whitman 
among  the  poets  bred  in  the  New  England  tradi- 
tion of  ethical  selection  and  conformity  to  English 
verse  forms.  Fortunately  for  Japan  and  for  us 
this  realist  among  the  classicists  was  more  deeply 
interested  in  the  movement  of  life  going  on  before 
him  than  in  the  practice  of  the  older  painters; 
to  his  contemporaries  he  had  what  we  should  call 
the  journalistic  sense,  which  the  true  classicist 
never  has  :  the  sense  of  those  human  values  which 
stand  out  in  bold,  often  crude  relief,  and  convey 
the  feeling  for  life  that  makes  pictures  and 
books  what  we  of  the  West  call  human  docu- 
ments. 


10      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

The  Japanese  cared  little  for  Hiroshige's  sketches 
because  their  departure  from  the  traditions,  and 
their  effective  but  quick,  rough  vigor  seemed  like 
an  intrusion  of  vulgarity  in  a  field  in  which  the 
most  exquisite  order  had  reigned  with  almost 
undisputed  authority.  When  foreigners,  free  from 
the  artistic  preconceptions  of  old  Japan,  saw  the 
sketches  of  Hiroshige  they  recognized  at  once 
their  graphic  power  and  their  immense  human 
interest ;  accustomed  to  regard  etchings,  although 
printed  from  a  metal  surface,  as  original  works, 
they  were  not  confused  by  the  fact  that  these 
striking  pictures  were  prints  from  original  draw- 
ings ;  and  foreign  appreciation  has  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  Japanese  to  the  unsuspected  importance 
of  a  neglected  painter.  The  series  of  fifty-two 
prints  of  the  Tokaido  are  now  highly  valued  and 
increasingly  difficult  to  secure  because  of  their 
historical  as  well  as  their  graphic  interest. 

The  Tokaido  was  the  most  famous  road  in 
Japan ;  it  was  the  highway  between  the  two 
capitals,  Kyoto  and  Yeddo  or,  as  it  is  now  called, 
Tokyo. 


THE  BACKGROUND  H 

This  Eastern  Sea  Road  runs  along  the  eastern 
shore,  often  within  sight  of  the  Pacific,  the  moun- 
tain ranges  to  the  west  rising  across  level  rice 
fields  or  little  farms  every  foot  of  which  is  under 
cultivation,  and  one  sees  everywhere  the  patient 
and  indomitable  industry  of  the  people  tirelessly 
at  work.  Until  1868  this  ancient  road  was  the 
avenue  of  communication  between  the  Mikado 
or  Emperor,  and  the  Shogun,  between  the  divinely 
appointed  head  of  the  nation  and  its  real  ruler. 
Its  course  was  once  marked  by  long  rows  of  pine 
trees  as  the  roads  in  France  are  often  defined  as 
far  as  the  eye  can  reach  by  long  lines  of  poplars. 
The  Japanese  are  an  active  people  and  the  road 
life  of  the  country  is  animated  and  picturesque 
even  to-day  when  the  main  highways  are  paral- 
leled by  railroads. 

In  the  old  days,  as  in  England  in  the  days  of  the 
stagecoach,  the  life  of  Japan  could  be  seen  in 
panoramic  variety  and  completeness  on  the  high- 
way. All  sorts  and  conditions  of  people  were 
moving  in  endless  procession  from  city  to  city. 
Handsome  palanquins  carried  and  concealed  people 


12      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

of  wealth  and  rank,  while  inexpensive  bamboo 
conveyances  were  at  the  service  of  the  poorer 
classes.  Decorated  but  very  uncomfortable  carts 
performed  the  same  service  for  those  of  the  most 
exalted  station,  while  pack-horses  and  pedestrians 
crowded  the  road. 

Then  as  now  the  majority  of  travelers  walked  or 
ran  in  close-fitting  smocks  like  those  worn  by 
English  farm  laborers  and  hostlers  in  Shakespeare's 
time.  There  were  heavy  packs  on  their  shoulders, 
or  long  poles  with  tubs  balanced  at  either  end. 
In  the  Tokaido  prints  the  whole  active  life  of  old 
Japan  unfolds  like  a  panorama,  and  the  story  of 
its  industry,  frugality  and  cheerful  discipline  is 
graphically  told.  Its  wrays  and  means  of  trans- 
portation are  supplemented  by  inns,  tea  houses, 
shops.  These  places  of  rest  and  refreshment  were 
simple  and  inexpensive.  No  one  was  in  haste ; 
time  had  no  commercial  value  and  the  journey  of 
life  was  free  from  the  tyranny  of  clocks.  Even 
to-day,  when  many  modern  habits  have  boon 
adopted,  the  Japanese  cannot  be  driven  faster 
than  their  natural  speed.  One  of  the  charges 


THE  BACKGROUND  13 

brought  against  them  is  that  they  often  fail 
to  keep  the  time  condition  in  contracts.  When 
this  happens  it  will  generally  be  found  that  a 
Japanese  has  yielded  to  persistent  urging  and  has 
substituted  the  date  demanded  by  a  foreigner  for 
the  date  suggested  by  himself. 

Walking  at  their  own  pace,  with  frequent  stops 
for  a  little  talk  and  very  little  cups  of  tea,  these 
patient,  cheerful  working  people  were  capable  of 
extraordinary  feats  of  endurance.  To-day  the 
Kurumya,  or  jinrikisha  man,  will  run  hour  after 
hour  with  little  evidence  of  fatigue,  and  will  turn 
a  smiling  face  when  he  gives  you  a  hand  at  the  end 
of  the  journey. 

The  foreign  traveler  on  the  Tokaido,  if  there  had 
been  such,  would  have  found  endless  interest  in 
the  busy,  moving  industrial  life  of  old  Japan ; 
but  his  attention  would  have  been  arrested  from 
time  to  time  and  his  progress  stopped  by  companies 
of  armed  men  before  whom  the  road  emptied  itself 
of  all  other  travelers.  They  wore  two  swords, 
one  long  and  one  short,  were  protected  by  armor, 
and  guarded  some  powerful  Daimyo  or  noble, 


14      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

possibly  a  prince ;  and  as  they  approached  lesser 
folk  drew  to  the  side  of  the  highway  and  waited 
at  respectful  attention  until  the  procession  had 
passed.  They  were  dark,  fierce  looking  figures 
in  their  strange  armor.  In  these  companies  of 
armed  attendants  one  caught  a  glimpse  of  the 
feudal  system,  which  for  generations  was  as  highly 
organized  in  Japan  as  it  had  been  in  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  There  was  plenty  of  humor  among 
the  plain  people  on  the  Tokaido,  and  the  rivalries 
of  inns,  tea  houses  and  shops  gave  variety  to  the 
journey ;  but  when  an  armed  company  appeared 
the  discipline  which  kept  Japan  rigid  in  ancient 
molds  was  instantly  apparent  in  the  attitude 
of  profound  respect  and  the  smiling  face  always 
turned  toward  those  in  authority.  The  Japanese 
may  have  learned  courtesy  and  the  habit  of  being 
pleasant  at  the  point  of  the  sword ;  but  now  that 
the  sword  is  sheathed  they  have  not  forgotten 
these  delightful  arts  of  advanced  civilization. 

There  were  still  more  important  travelers  on 
the  Tokaido ;  embassies  from  the  Shogun  to  the 
Mikado  and  from  the  Mikado  to  the  Shogun 


THE  BACKGROUND  15 

passed  and  repassed  on  the  ancient  highway, 
and  brought  into  view  the  foundation  on  which 
the  political  and  social  order  had  rested  since 
the  twelfth  century. 

Before  that  date,  as  to-day,  the  authority  of  the 
Mikado  or  Emperor  was  supreme.  He  was  not 
only  the  ruler  of  the  nation ;  he  was  the  father  of 
the  Japanese  people.  The  first  of  the  long  line  of 
men  who  have  ruled  Japan,  the  Land  of  the  Rising 
Sun,  was  a  descendant  of  the  sun  goddess,  the 
central  figure  in  the  Japanese  pantheon.  For 
Japanese  history,  like  all  other  early  history, 
began  in  religion ;  and  primitive  religion  is  always 
poetry.  Our  early  history,  authentically  recorded, 
was  a  great  adventure  of  faith,  aspiration,  and  dar- 
ing. The  earliest  history  of  the  Japanese,  mytho- 
logical and  legendary,  was  a  great  romance.  The 
Creator  and  the  Creatoress  or  Creatorex  —  to 
manufacture  a  word  —  met  on  the  Floating  Bridge 
of  Heaven  and  fell  in  love  at  sight,  and,  with  the 
spear  which  they  thrust  into  the  sea,  they  created 
the  group  of  islands  — -  three  thousand  and  more 
in  number  —  which  lie  along  the  eastern  coast  of 


16      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Asia  for  nearly  twelve  hundred  miles.  Many  of 
these  islands  are  important  chiefly  because  they 
are  dangerous  to  navigators;  of  the  fifty-two  or 
three  millions  who  populate  this  archipelago  the 
vast  majority  live  on  four  islands. 

This  island  world  was  created  by  volcanic  activity 
and  there  are  still  nearly  fifty  active  volcanoes  to 
remind  the  Japanese  of  their  geological  history. 
Lest  they  should  forget,  the  islands  experience 
about  fifteen  hundred  earthquake  shocks  every 
year,  or  an  average  of  about  four  a  day.  The 
vast  majority  of  these  vibrations  are  gentle  re- 
minders of  forces  not  yet  brought  under  govern- 
ment control ;  they  are  not  dangerous,  but  they 
are  disturbing,  and  familiarity  with  them  does 
not  breed  contempt.  At  intervals  of  forty  or  fifty 
years  there  is  a  great  catastrophe,  involving  heavy 
loss  of  life  and  property.  Twenty-two  years 
ago,  on  a  clear,  quiet  autumn  morning  with  no 
warnings  in  sky  or  air,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
nearly  twenty  thousand  people  were  instantly  killed 
or  subsequently  died  from  injuries  received  as  the 
result  of  a  shock  that  scattered  wreckage  through 


THE  BACKGROUND  17 

the  central  section  of  the  main  island,  and  changed 
the  aspect  of  the  country. 

This  habit  of  vibration  has  compelled  a  certain 
adaptation  of  domestic  and  religious  architecture. 
The  houses  are  built  of  wood,  and  are  generally 
low ;  nails  are  not  used,  and  a  severe  shaking  leaves 
the  structure  practically  uninjured,  while  the 
movable  partitions  and  walls,  —  if  one  may  use 
a  word  which  suggests  stone  or  brick  or  cement  to 
describe  slides  of  oiled  paper  —  make  escape  easy. 
The  stone  walls  of  castles  are  given  a  curvature 
which  secures  stability  and  gives  pleasure  to  the 
eye ;  while  the  five-story  pagodas,  which  have  sur- 
vived many  earthquakes,  contain  a  heavy  piece  of 
timber  like  a  great  mast  which  is  hung  from  the 
top  and  rests  on  a  pivot  and,  in  case  of  shock, 
sets  the  structure  automatically  swaying  with  the 
earth.  The  primitive  Japanese  attributed  these 
disturbances  to  the  restlessness  of  the  great  fish 
on  which  the  islands  rested. 

The  sea  is  never  absent  from  the  Japanese 
consciousness;  it  is  the  source  of  much  of  their 
prosperity  and  of  some  of  their  greatest  dangers ; 


18      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

for  the  coasts  in  certain  sections  are  exposed  to 
destructive  tidal  waves.  These  great  waves  gener- 
ally accompany  earthquakes;  though  sometimes 
the  disturbances  are  far  out  at  sea.  Seventeen 
years  ago  the  ocean  swept  a  long  stretch  of  coast 
on  the  northeast  along  which  a  trolley  line  now  runs, 
destroyed  practically  every  structure  for  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  and 
drowned  thirty  thousand  people.  During  the  late 
summer  and  early  autumn  the  islands  are  visited 
by  storms  of  terrifying  intensity.  Nature  in  Japan 
is  quick-tempered  and  passionate,  and  underneath 
the  smile  with  which  the  Japanese  faces  life  there 
is  a  deep  sense  of  the  tragedy  of  things.  Japanese 
music  is  always  minor  and  the  stories  that  are  dear 
to  the  people  rarely  lack  the  tragic  element. 
The  physical  environment  of  the  Japanese  has 
developed  a  race  not  indifferent  to  danger,  but 
facing  it  with  stoical  courage  and  irrepressible 
energy  of  mind  and  body. 

Nature  is  passionate  and  willful  in  Japan,  but 
never  commonplace  ;  there  are  nearly  five  hundred 
mineral  springs  in  the  islands,  many  of  them  hot ; 


THE  BACKGROUND  19 

there  are  glens  among  the  mountains  down  which 
streams  of  hot  water  pour,  and  these  steaming 
rivulets  cover  the  rocks  with  ferns  and  moss  of 
exquisite  delicacy  and  in  tropical  profusion ;  while 
the  effects  in  winter,  when  the  snow  is  on  the 
ground,  create  the  illusion  of  fairyland.  The 
rivers  are  not  large,  but  they  are  numerous,  and 
the  currents  of  many  of  them  are  impetuous ;  there 
are  many  rapids,  rushing  with  passionate  haste 
through  striking  mountain  landscapes.  If  one 
looks  for  the  traditional  but  largely  mythical 
Oriental  calm  in  Japan  he  will  find  it  only  around 
the  lakes,  which  have  a  tranquil  loveliness  human- 
ized by  the  Buddhist  temples  on  the  shore,  and 
in  certain  lights  a  beauty  as  deep  and  delicate 
as  the  genius  of  Japanese  art. 

The  arable  land  on  which  more  than  fifty 
million  people  live  is  not  larger  than  the  state  of 
New  York,  and  every  foot  of  this  small  area  is 
cultivated  with  skill  and  tireless  energy.  The 
Japanese  have  a  native  genius  for  dealing  with  the 
soil,  and  of  late  years  they  have  reenforced  this 
combination  of  instinct  and  experience  with  the 


20      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

most  thorough  scientific  study.  In  the  countries 
which  have  come  under  their  control,  —  Korea, 
Southern  Manchuria,  Formosa,  —  the  government 
has  established  laboratories  in  which  soils  are 
analyzed  and  experiments  with  different  crops 
made. 

The  sea  also  dominates  Japan  in  the  matter  of 
climate.  Over  a  stretch  of  territory  twelve  hun- 
dred miles  long  there  are,  of  course,  climatic  dif- 
ferences as  marked  as  those  which  exist  between 
Maine  and  Florida.  The  Black  Current,  —  the 
Gulf  Stream  of  Japan,  —  flowrs  northward  from 
the  Southern  China  along  the  entire  eastern  coast 
of  the  islands  and  moderates  the  extreme  cold  but 
produces  great  dampness.  There  is  a  proverb  in 
Tokyo  that  it  is  "warmer  by  the  thermometer 
and  colder  by  the  overcoat."  The  mercury 
rarely  falls  very  low,  but  the  chill  in  the  air  is 
often  intense  and  penetrating.  It  is  colder  in 
winter  and  warmer  in  summer  than  in  England, 
and  there  is  double  the  waterfall  of  that  country ; 
the  air  is  deficient  in  ozone.  There  are  many 
beautiful  days  in  Japan  and  the  climate  is  not 


THE  BACKGROUND  21 

dangerous;  but  it  leaves  many  things  to  be 
desired.  The  autumn  months  are  often  delightful. 
The  eleventh  day  of  February  is  the  Japanese 
Fourth  of  July ;  on  that  day  in  the  year  660  B.C., 
about  a  hundred  years  after  the  founding  of  Rome, 
the  Emperor  Jimmu  Tenno  ascended  the  throne 
now  occupied  by  the  122d  Emperor.  Tradition 
declares  that  he  was  the  direct  descendant,  in 
the  fifth  generation,  of  the  Sun  Goddess ;  if  a  sober 
historian  had  been  at  hand  he  would  probably 
have  recorded  the  fact  that  the  first  Emperor 
was  the  leader  of  a  body  of  invaders  who  had  come 
from  the  opposite  coast  of  Asia,  landed  on  the 
south  of  the  main  island  and  conquered  the  people 
to  the  north.  Other  streams  of  immigration 
poured  into  the  islands,  some  of  these  invaders 
coming  from  Korea  and,  ultimately,  from  Siberia. 
The  racial  ancestry  of  the  Japanese  is  in  doubt; 
the  latest  opinion  inclines  to  the  theory  that  there 
is  Malasian,  Mongolian  and  possibly  Caucasian 
blood  in  their  veins.  The  field  of  surmise  is  so 
wide  that  they  have  not  escaped  the  suspicion  of 
connection  with  the  Lost  Tribes ;  beyond  this, 


22      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

speculation  cannot  go,  and  the  Japanese  are 
fortunate  in  having  a  problem  which  will  probably 
keep  students  of  ethnology  busy  for  many  genera- 
tions. 

The  Ainus,  or  people  in  possession  of  the  islands 
when  the  invaders  landed,  are  now  as  negligible 
in  the  development  of  the  country  as  the  Indians 
in  the  United  States. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  China, 
India  and  Korea  were  well  advanced  in  the  arts  of 
civilization  and  there  was  intermittent  communica- 
tion between  the  countries  separated  by  the  China 
and  Yellow  Seas.  About  three  hundred  years 
later  the  Japanese  received  a  definite  intellectual 
impulse  from  China  through  Korea,  and  the 
effect  was  much  the  same  as  that  produced  by 
the  impact  of  the  classical  culture  on  the  mind  of 
Western  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
Japanese  genius  for  assimilation,  so  dramatically 
effective  during  the  last  sixty  years,  went  to  school 
to  China  and  eagerly  studied  Chinese  laws,  cus- 
toms, manners  and  art ;  the  spirit  of  the  nation  was 
deeply  stirred  and  its  quick  and  vigorous  intelli- 


Pagoda  at  Nikko 


THE  BACKGROUND  23 

gence  energized  and  directed  by  the  discoveries 
and  achievements  of  its  more  advanced  neighbor. 
There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  among  experts  with 
regard  to  the  beautiful  and  characteristic  curves  of 
the  roofs  of  the  temples  and  palaces  in  Japan,  and 
no  one  can  now  decide  whence  those  strikingly 
effective  lines  were  drawn ;  but  the  pagodas 
distinctly  show  Chinese  influence,  and  the  early 
statues  in  wood  at  Nara  and  elsewhere  indicate 
contact  with  Korean  art. 

Four  hundred  years  later  another  foreign  in- 
fluence entered  Japan ;  Buddhism  came  originally 
from  India  and,  with  its  vague,  all-embracing 
philosophy,  its  doctrine  of  submission  and  re- 
nunciation, its  emphasis  on  the  passive  virtues,  its 
imposing  explanation  of  the  Universe,  and  its 
comfortable  code  of  conduct  for  this  life,  entered 
deeply  into  Japanese  thought. 

"The  educational  value  of  Buddhism  in  Japan," 
writes  Dr.  Nitobe,  "cannot  be  overestimated. 
It  did  not  stop  in  its  activities  with  things  spiritual. 
Its  influence  penetrated  and  permeated  all  the 
ramifications  of  our  national  life.  It  touched 


24      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  very  fountains  of  thought  and  set  a-flowing 
new  currents  of  ideas.  It  sobered  the  light- 
hearted  nature  worshipers.  It  furnished  a  new 
interpretation  of  ancestor  worship.  It  invented 
a  new  vocabulary.  It  gave  rise  to  new  arts, 
trades  and  crafts.  It  initiated  a  new  polity  of 
government.  It  changed  the  whole  social  struc- 
ture." 

In  the  eighth  century  it  had  become  the  religion 
of  the  state.  It  had  the  genius  of  the  Hegelian 
philosophy ;  unlike  Mohammedanism,  which  has 
never  taken  root  in  Japan,  it  was  so  tolerant  that 
it  devitalized  other  religions  by  making  room  for 
them  in  its  own  flexible  and  expansive  system. 
Buddhist  and  Shinto  gods  live  on  amicable  terms 
in  the  same  temples,  and  in  private  houses  the 
shrines  of  the  two  faiths  were  found  side  by 
side,  Shinto  taking  possession  of  the  happy  events 
of  life  —  birth,  thanksgiving  and  festivals  of  joy ; 
and  Buddhism  becoming  associated  with  the  sad 
events  of  life,  and  especially  with  death. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   GENIUS  OP  SHINTO 

JAPAN  has  accepted  its  religious  faith  from  other 
races,  as  Europe  and  the  Americas  have  accepted 
Christianity  from  the  Hebrews,  China  and  parts 
of  Asia  have  accepted  Buddhism  from  the 
Hindus,  and  large  sections  of  the  Nearer  East 
and  of  Northern  Africa  have  accepted  Mohamme- 
danism from  the  Arabs ;  but  Japan  has  one  faith 
which  is  not  only  indigenous  but  highly  charac- 
teristic of  the  spirit  of  the  people,  the  genius  of  the 
state  and  the  power  of  the  laws.  Shinto,  the  Way 
of  the  Gods,  the  worship  of  ancestors,  is  in  its 
essence  essentially  Japanese.  Every  Japanese  is 
a  Shintoist  in  his  sense  of  obligation  to  and  rever- 
ence for  his  ancestors.  For  generations  his  an- 
cestors have  reverenced  their  ancestors  and  cele- 
brated their  anniversaries  by  "paying  visits 
to  their  graves,  offering  flowers,  food  and  drink, 

25 


26      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

burning  incense  and  bowing  before  their  tombs/' 
and  this  attitude  toward  those  who  have  gone 
before  and  made  ready  for  his  coming  by  their 
toils,  achievements;  sacrifices  and  sorrows  is 
instinctive  with  him.  It  has  been  the  bond 
which  has  bound  not  only  his  family  but  his 
nation  together;  it  has  made  the  Japanese  one 
great  family,  with  the  Emperor  at  the  head.  It  is 
a  sublime  affirmation  of  immortality,  of  the  un- 
broken continuity  of  the  Japanese  people  living 
or  vanished  from  the  world. 

"When  I  was  a  student  in  London,"  writes 
Professor  Hozumi,  a  distinguished  scholar  of  to- 
day, "I  once  went  to  the  Lyceum  Theater  to  see 
Henry  Irving  play  Hamlet.  I  indeed  admired 
the  performance  of  that  famous  actor ;  but  when 
it  came  to  the  ghost  scene,  I  was  struck  with  an 
impression  that  our  actors  would  perform  it  in  a 
different  way.  Hamlet,  as  represented  by  Irving, 
appeared  to  me  as  constantly  showing  signs  of  fear 
and  dread,  not  only  on  account  of  the  horrible 
story  told  by  his  father's  ghost  —  which  is  but 
natural  —  but  for  the  ghost  itself.  A  Japanese 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  27 

actor,  if  he  were  to  act  the  part  of  Hamlet,  would 
certainly  show  strong  marks  of  love  and  respect 
towards  the  father's  spirit,  mingled  with  the  feel- 
ing of  sorrow  and  sympathy  for  his  father's  fate, 
and  of  horror  and  anger  at  the  'foul  and  most 
unnatural  murder.'  He  would  perhaps  try 
to  embrace  the  phantom  instead  of  parrying, 
as  the  great  English  actor  did.  .  .  .  Ghost  scenes 
are  not  uncommon  in  Japanese  theaters ;  and 
when  the  ghost  appears  to  the  parents,  sons, 
daughters,  friends  or  lovers,  those  who  meet  it 
never  show  signs  of  dread,  but  those  of  joy  for 
the  meeting,  mingled  perhaps  with  sorrow  or 
sympathy."  There  is  a  tradition  that  a  distin- 
guished English  actor  playing  the  part  of  Hamlet 
was  so  overcome  with  terror  at  the  supernal 
majesty  of  the  ghost  that  he  forgot  his  lines  ! 

Shinto  is  no  longer  a  religion ;  it  is  a  profound 
national  sentiment.  It  never  was  a  religion, 
properly  speaking ;  but  nature  worship  was  com- 
bined with  it  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  primitive 
worshipers.  It  has  no  founder,  no  creed,  no 
theology,  no  sacred  book;  it  was  a  practice  or 


28      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

discipline  of  love  and  gratitude,  of  remembrance 
and  of  patriotism.  The  Shinto  shrine,  in  its 
integrity,  is  a  simple  structure  of  wood,  un- 
decorated,  with  a  mirror  standing  on  the  altar 
symbolically  enforcing  the  Greek  maxim  :  "Know 
thyself."  The  most  famous  shrine  in  Japan  is 
that  of  the  Imperial  Ancestors  at  Yamada  in 
Ise,  in  which  the  Divine  Mirror  is  housed.  An 
American  has  said  of  it :  "There  is  nothing  to  see 
in  Yamada,  and  what  there  is  to  see  is  not  seen." 
The  shrine  is  a  mere  shelter  for  the  spirit ;  it  is 
taken  down  every  twenty  years  and  exactly  re- 
produced. For  many  generations  every  Japanese 
felt  it  his  duty  to  visit  the  Great  Shrine  at  least 
once. 

The  genius  of  Shinto  is  national  and  patriotic ; 
it  has  no  explanation  of  the  mystery  of  the  universe 
to  offer  its  believers,  no  code  of  ethics  to  impose 
on  them.  It  has  created  myriads  of  deities,  but 
they  have  been  outside  the  life  of  men,  —  more  or 
less  vivid  personifications  of  natural  forces ; 
its  only  contact  with  reality  has  been  its  multi- 
tudinous apotheoses  of  men.  It  has  taught  one 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  29 

deep  and  vital  truth;  the  unbroken  continuity 
of  a  people,  the  immortality  of  a  race.  It  has 
fastened  thought  on  life  arid  banished  death  in 
our  sense  of  the  word ;  in  the  older  thought  of 
Japan  there  were  no  dead ;  the  nation  through  all 
generations  was  indivisible  and  indestructible. 

Shinto  was  patriotism  in  its  most  comprehensive 
terms,  plus  naturalism ;  it  had  the  tremendous 
motivity  of  the  one,  and  the  moral  ineffectiveness 
of  the  other;  it  deified  men  without  preliminary 
examination ;  it  demanded  for  admission  to  the 
company  of  the  gods  that  a  man  should  be  an 
ancestor ;  credentials  of  character  were  not  asked. 
He  who  came  to  the  shrine  borne  on  the  prayers 
or  worship  of  descendants  entered  without 
challenge. 

And  those  who  so  easily  joined  the  gods  as 
easily  returned  to  the  places  once  familiar  to  them. 
From  the  13th  to  the  15th  of  July  each  year  they 
were  welcomed  in  their  old  homes  and  temples. 
Houses  and  shrines  were  swept  and  garnished; 
the  little  lacquer  tables  on  which  Japanese  meals 
are  served  were  covered  with  offerings  of  food; 


30      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

in  humble  homes  these  offerings  were  spread  on 
the  matting,  protected  by  the  leaves  of  the  lotus. 
Fresh  water  was  provided  and  tea  served  in  ex- 
quisite cups  and  bowls.  During  three  days  the 
departed  came  back,  silent  and  invisible,  but 
indubitably  real,  and  found  the  whole  land  and  all 
hearts  open  and  waiting  for  them,  and  the  symbols 
of  service  and  remembrance  at  hand  wherever 
they  went.  Torches  lighted  them  their  way, 
fires  were  kindled  on  the  shores  of  the  sea  —  the 
spirits  always  came  back  over  the  sea  —  on 
banks  of  rivers,  and  the  beautiful  lanterns  of  the 
Festival  of  the  Dead  guided  the  returning  spirits 
to  their  homes.  So,  in  the  old  days,  Japan  re- 
newed its  allegiance  to  those  from  whom  it  had 
received  country  and  home,  and  all  things  were 
theirs  again.  On  the  night  of  the  third  day, 
when  the  voiceless  farewells  were  spoken,  little 
boats  of  straw,  laden  with  food  and  messages  of 
love,  were  set  afloat  on  lake  and  river  and  sea,  a 
tiny  lantern  at  the  prow  and  incense  at  the  stern. 
"Down  all  the  creeks  and  rivers  and  canals," 
writes  Mr.  Hearn,  "the  phantom  fleets  go  glimmer- 


THE  GENIUS  OF,  SHINTO  31 

ing  to  the  sea;  and  all  the  sea  sparkles  to  the 
horizon  with  the  lights  of  the  dead,  and  the  sea 
wind  is  fragrant  with  incense." 

Such  a  faith  as  this,  renewed  by  daily  worship, 
for  there  is  a  shrine  in  every  house  in  Japan,  is  not 
only  a  living  source  of  poetry,  it  is  &  national  sen- 
timent of  tremendous  energy.  Those  who  have 
vanished  are  neither  dead  nor  forgetful ;  they 
watch  over  Japan  and  guard  its  homes ;  daily  they 
are  thanked  for  the  blessings  of  field  and  home, 
and  daily  they  give  out  of  their  vast  abundance. 
They  are  objects  of  love  and  reverence,  not  of 
dread  and  fear. 

One  who  seeks  the  soul  of  Japan  will  find  it  in 
Shinto,  the  most  penetrating  influence  in  Japan 
and  the  source  of  its  strength.  It  has  fatal  limita- 
tions, but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  as  Hirata  said  : 
"Devotion  to  the  memory  of  ancestors  is  the 
mainspring  of  all  virtues.  No  one  who  discharges 
his  duties  to  them  will  ever  be  disrespectful  to 
the  gods  or  to  his  living  parents.  Such  a  man  also 
will  be  faithful  to  his  prince,  loyal  to  his  friends, 
and  kind  and  gentle  to  his  wife  and  children. 


32      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

For  the  essence  of  this  devotion  is  indeed  filial 
piety." 

Mr.  Hearn  reports  that  when  he  was  teaching 
if  a  group  of  Japanese  students  had  been  asked 
their  dearest  wish  nine  out  of  ten  would  have 
replied,  "to  die  for  His  Majesty  the  Emperor"; 
and  the  stone  shrine  behind  the  noble  lighthouse 
on  Monument  Hill  at  Port  Arthur,  under  which 
rest  the  ashes  of  twenty-two  thousand  Japanese 
soldiers  and  before  which  stand  groups  of  men 
and  women  with  bowred  heads,  eloquently  bears 
witness  to  the  vitality  of  Shinto.  The  names  of 
those  heroes  are  preserved  on  little  tablets  in 
houses  all  over  Japan ;  and  on  Kudan  Hill,  in 
Tokyo,  in  a  great  new  temple,  their  names  and 
the  names  of  their  comrades  who  died  on  land 
and  sea,  shine  down  on  the  Emperor  and  the  great 
officers  of  the  Imperial  Court  when  they  go  once  a 
year  to  thank  them  in  the  name  of  Japan,  and  to 
venerate  a  devotion  to  ruler  and  countiy  which 
welcomed  death  as  a  friend. 

The  Japanese  word  for  government  throws  clear 
light  on  the  vital  importance  of  ancestor  worship 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  33 

in  the  Japanese  system :  literally  translated  it 
means  "affairs  of  worship/'  and  the  phrase  "the 
unity  of  worship  and  government"  was  in  con- 
stant use,  Professor  Hozumi  tells  us,  by  the  earlier 
writers  on  politics;  the  old  law  books  contain 
minute  regulations  regarding  ritual ;  and  great 
affairs  of  state,  like  declarations  of  war  and  the 
signing  of  treaties,  are  formally  reported  to  the 
Great  Shrine  at  Ise ;  as  —  to  compare  great  with 
small  matters  —  deaths  in  a  family  among  our 
ancestors  were  immediately  communicated  to  the 
bees.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  with  Russia 
the  Emperor  went  in  person  to  the  Great  Shrine 
to  give  thanks  on  behalf  of  the  nation ;  and  Ad- 
miral Togo,  returning  from  his  victory  in  the 
Battle  of  the  Japan  Sea,  took  the  entire  fleet  to 
the  Ise  Bay,  and  with  all  his  officers,  three  bat- 
talions of  marines  with  arms  and  a  thousand  men 
without  arms,  conducted  a  great  ceremony  of 
thanksgiving.  Ambassadors  and  officials  going 
abroad  on  important  missions  or  returning,  are 
expected  to  go  to  the  shrine  of  the  Imperial 
Ancestor  immediately  after  they  are  received 


34      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

in  audience  by  the  Emperor.  On  the  4th  day 
of  January  in  each  year  the  Emperor  receives 
from  his  Ministers  a  report  of  the  condition  of  the 
shrine  at  Ise,  and  this  ceremony  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  the  New  Year. 

In  the  Constitution  promulgated  by  the  Em- 
peror on  the  llth  day  of  February,  1889,  the  an- 
niversary of  the  founding  of  the  Empire  by  Jimmu 
Tenno  and  observed  as  a  national  holiday  through- 
out Japan,  the  basis  of  the  Imperial  authority 
and  the  unity  of  the  Japanese  people  are  une- 
quivocally declared  to  rest  on  ancestral  worship. 
The  Preamble  of  the  Constitution  reads  :  "  Hav- 
ing, by  virtue  of  the  glories  of  Our  Ancestors, 
ascended  the  throne  of  a  lineal  succession  un- 
broken for  ages  eternal ;  remembering  that  Our 
beloved  subjects  are  the  very  same  that  have  been 
favored  with  the  benevolent  care  and  affectionate 
vigilance  of  Our  Ancestors,  and  desiring  to  promote 
their  welfare  and  give  development  to  their  moral 
and  intellectual  faculties;"  and  in  the  Imperial 
Address  on  the  occasion  of  the  promulgation  the 
Emperor  used  these  striking  phrases:  "The 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  35 

Imperial  Founder  of  Our  House  and  Our  other 
Imperial  Ancestors,  by  the  help  and  support 
of  the  forefathers  of  Our  subjects,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  Our  Empire  upon  a  basis,  which  is  to  last 
forever;'7  and  closed  the  address  with  the  solemn 
invocation :  "  May  the  Heavenly  Spirits  witness 
this  our  solemn  oath."  In  the  Imperial  House 
Law,  promulgated  on  the  same  day,  not  only  the 
Imperial  authority  but  the  rules  governing  the 
Imperial  House  are  repeatedly  and  explicitly 
declared  to  have  been  received  from  the  Imperial 
Ancestry,  and  to  constitute  a  sacred  national  in- 
heritance. Admiral  Togo,  like  General  Nogi,  never 
failed  to  ascribe  the  Japanese  victories  in  the  great 
war  to  the  Emperor  and  his  ancestors,  and  in 
acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  de- 
cisive defeat  of  the  hostile  fleet  on  the  Japan  Sea 
the  Emperor  closed  his  dispatch  with  the  signifi- 
cant words:  "We  have  thus  been  enabled  to 
answer  to  the  Spirits  of  our  Ancestors." 

These  phrases  go  to  the  very  heart  of  Japanese 
political  and  social  organization.  The  Emperor 
receives  his  authority  as  an  inheritance  from  a 


36      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

divine  ancestor;  the  Imperial  government  has 
been  both  theocratic  and  patriarchal ;  and  this 
government  has  now  become,  by  the  voluntary 
act  of  the  Emperor,  Constitutional. 

The  spectacle  of  an  absolute  Monarchy,  founded 
on  divine  right  in  the  absolute  sense  of  the  words, 
voluntarily  becoming  constitutional,  has  never 
before  been  seen  in  history  and  is  a  dramatic 
illustration  of  the  flexibility  of  the  Japanese  system 
and  of  their  genius  for  adaptation.  It  was  made 
possible  by  the  freedom  of  Shinto  from  creeds, 
ritual,  dogmas,  codes  and  ecclesiastical  authority. 
It  is  a  principle,  not  an  arbitrary  method ;  a 
foundation,  not  a  superstructure.  No  one  can 
understand  Japan  unless  he  studies  the  nature 
arid  influence  of  ancestor-worship.  It  not  only 
expresses  the  Japanese  genius  and  spirit ;  it  ex- 
plains also  the  reverence  in  which  the  Emperor 
has  been  held  for  more  than  two  thousand  years. 
He  has  been  not  only  the  descendant  of  the  Sun 
Goddess  and,  therefore,  semi-divine ;  he  has 
been  also  the  head  of  the  great  family,  of  which 
every  Japanese  is  a  member  by  blood  relationship. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  37 

Moreover,  from  the  twelfth  century  to  the  Resto- 
ration in  1868  the  Emperor  was  invisible  to  his 
subjects  ;  his  person  was  too  sacred  to  be  looked 
upon  save  by  the  few  who  served  or  guarded 
him. 

The  eighth  century  was  a  kind  of  Augustan 
age  in  Japan.  Nara  had  become  the  permanent 
home  of  the  Emperor  and,  therefore,  the  capital 
of  the  Empire.  Chinese  culture  and  the  spread 
of  Buddhism,  which  had  become  the  state  religion, 
fostered  the  gentler  qualities  of  the  people,  —  their 
love  of  beauty,  of  nature,  of  art  ;  it  inspired  the 
building  of  temples  of  impressive  size  and  magnifi- 
cent decoration  ;  the  opening  of  schools  and  uni- 
versities; increasing  intimacy  of  social  inter- 
course ;  the  writing  of  poetry,  which  became  a 
kind  of  national  passion  ;  the  activity  of  women 
in  social  life  and  in  literature  ;  richness  of  dress  and 
luxury  in  habits  and  manner  of  life;  it  evoked 
the  mellow  resonance  of  temple  bells  carrying  the 
quiet  of  pine  groves  and  the  spirit  of  meditation 
into  the  busy  streets  of  cities  and  the  fields  where 
men  and  women  worked  in  cheerful  industry. 


f> 

\2. 


38      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

The  Emperors  began  about  that  time  to  delegate 
their  power  to  able  ministers,  and  the  opportunity 
which  this  relaxed  grasp  afforded  was  skillfully 
used  by  a  family  of  energetic  and  capable  men, 
the  Fujiwaras,  who  so  shrewdly  emphasized  the 
divinity  of  the  Emperor  that  he  became  too  sacred 
to  deal  with  such  gross  matters  as  politics  and 
government,  and  they  relieved  him  of  these  re- 
sponsibilities. There  was  an  element  of  moral 
and  physical  relaxation  in  the  Xara  period  which 
was  not  without  disastrous  results ;  but  it  left  the 
Japanese  a  highly  civilized  people,  with  a  lasting 
devotion  to  the  arts  of  painting,  architecture, 
landscape  gardening  and  poetry,  and  with  an 
ingrained  refinement  of  taste  and  manners. 

Meanwhile  the  energies  of  the  Fujiwaras,  the 
active  rulers  of  the  country,  were  declining,  the 
Emperor  was  in  seclusion,  and  a  new  and  more 
vigorous  family  were  gaining  power  in  the  North 
and  East.  Eight  hundred  years  ago  Yorirnoto, 
the  head  of  a  powerful  clan,  established  himself 
in  the  town  of  Kamakura  and,  in  the  name  of 
the  Emperor  and  acting  as  his  executive,  founded  a 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  39 

dynasty  of  rulers  who  held  their  place  until  1878. 
The  new  leader  was  called  the  Shogun,  or  General, 
and  he  and  his  successors  scrupulously  observed 
the  formalities  which  guarded  the  sanctity  of  the 
Emperor's  authority  and  person.  From  that  time 
until  fifteen  years  after  Commodore  Perry  opened 
the  closed  doors  of  the  Empire,  Japan  had  two 
rulers :  the  Mikado,  who  lived  in  splendid  seclu- 
sion, and  the  Shogun,  who  carried  on  the  govern- 
ment with  the  most  careful  regard  for  the  forms 
which  surrounded  the  Imperial  power,  but  himself 
possessed  of  its  substance  and  using  it  to  develop 
a  system  of  military  feudalism  as  a  protection 
for  his  authority. 

The  Shoguns  bound  theDaimyos,  or  great  nobles, 
to  their  cause  by  many  ingenious  ways ;  and  a 
powerful  class  of  fighting  men  gathered  around 
these  great  nobles,  as  the  knights  gathered  around 
the  great  nobles  during  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe. 
The  Samurai,  or  armed  companions  of  the 
Daimyos,  became  the  typical  figures  of  a  new  age 
in  Japan ;  an  age  not  devoid  of  art  activity  but 
the  emphasis  of  which  rested  on  courage,  loyalty, 


40      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

endurance ;  an  age  of  heroes  rather  than  of 
artists.  The  Samurai  had  great  qualities,  and  the 
story  of  their  ideals  is  beautifully  told  in  Dr. 
Nitabe's  "Bushido  "  ;  one  of  the  most  illuminating 
books  yet  written  on  Japan.  Men  took  on  Spartan 
virtues  in  those  days  and  women  did  not  lag 
behind  them.  Japan  still  smiled ;  smiled  the  more 
persistently  indeed;  since  one  must  always  wear  a 
pleasant  face  in  the  presence  of  one's  superiors ; 
but  it  developed  an  invincible  Stoicism  and  a 
passionate  loyalty.  It  bore  a  discipline  of  obedi- 
ence and  devotion  upon  which  rest  its  extraordi- 
nary modern  achievements  in  war,  in  government 
and  in  education.  A  literature  of  heroism,  partly 
legendary  and  partly  historical,  came  into  exist- 
ence ;  and  centuries  later,  in  the  after-glow  of  this 
feudal  age,  the  long  devotion  of  the  Forty-seven 
Ronins  became  the  most  popular  tale  in  Japan ; 
and  the  little  graveyard  in  Tokyo,  in  which  they 
are  buried,  has  been  a  shrine  to  which  pilgrims 
have  come  in  multitudes  for  two  hundred  years. 

Between  the  Mikado  in  his  palace  in  Kyoto  and 
the  Shogun  in  his  palace  in  Tokyo,  or  Yeddo  as  it 


THE  GENIUS  OF  SHINTO  41 

used  to  be  called,  embassies  bearing  splendid  gifts 
passed  and  repassed  on  the  Tokaido,  and  the  fiction 
of  supreme  authority  voluntarily  delegated  and 
exercised  with  constant  deference  to  the  Imperial 
will  was  magnificently  sustained.  In  his  relations 
with  the  Mikado  the  Shogun  was  all  humility, 
tempered  with  adroit  sagacity ;  toward  his  fellow 
Daimyos,  who  might  combine  to  overthrow  him, 
he  was  an  astute  politician.  He  compelled  them 
to  live  under  his  eye  in  Tokyo  half  the  year ;  and 
when  they  went  to  their  castles  or  estates  for  the 
other  half  year  his  agents  went  with  them.  In 
some  cases  members  of  Daimyo  families  were  left 
in  attendance  upon  the  Shogun  as  hostages  to 
fortune. 

The  Shogunate  passed  from  one  family  to 
another  until  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  it  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Toku- 
gawa  house,  which  gave  Japan  able  rulers  who 
greatly  added  to  the  power  and  effectiveness  of 
their  office.  The  last  of  the  Shoguns  resigned 
his  power  in  1868,  and  the  Emperor  resumed  his 
ancient  authority.  This  event,  which  the  Japan- 


42      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

ese  call  the  Restoration,  was  hastened  by  the 
opening  of  the  countiy  from  without,  but  would 
have  come  about  sooner  or  later  as  the  result  of 
a  revival  of  interest  in  the  earlier  history  of  the 
country  and  a  deepening  conviction  that  the  dual 
government  was  not  only  an  anachronism  but  a 
violation  of  Japanese  tradition  and  an  impairment 
of  the  Imperial  rights  and  dignity.  Embassies 
between  two  sovereign  powers  no  longer  pass  and 
repass  on  the  Tokaido.  The  Emperor  lives  in 
palace  grounds  which  once  belonged  to  the  Shogun, 
and  the  capital  of  the  Shogunate  has  become  the 
capital  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER  IV 

IN  TIME   OF  CHANGE 

WHEN  the  Japanese,  emerging  from  their  seclu- 
sion of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  began,  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  to  read  history 
and  familiarize  themselves  with  the  attitude  of 
the  West  toward  the  East  the  story  was  far  from 
reassuring.  It  was  ominous  in  its  reports  of  con- 
quest and  commercial  ambition,  and  sinister  in 
its  prophecies  of  danger  to  the  independence  and 
dignity  of  a  country  which  had  never  borne  the 
yoke  of  foreign  rule.  We  hear  from  time  to  time 
about  a  Yellow  Peril  which  is  coming  in  some 
remote  future,  but  nothing  is  said  about  the  White 
Peril  which  has  hung  over  Asia  for  centuries. 
Western  aggression  in  India,  Burmah,  Siam,  China, 
Thibet,  Persia,  is  not  a  vague  possibility  of  the 
future ;  it  is  a  tragic  fact ;  and,  while  Western 
rule  had  not  been  established  in  Egypt  nor  the 

43 


44      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

"strangling  of  a  Nation,"  as  Mr.  Schuster  has 
called  it,  accomplished  in  Persia,  the  stoiy  had  a 
sinister  meaning  for  the  alert-minded  Japanese 
who  became  acquainted  with  it  for  the  first  time 
sixty  years  ago. 

Nor  did  the  fact  that  in  some  cases  this  foreign 
rule  was  beneficial  relieve  the  story  of  its  ominous 
suggestion.  There  was  once  a  school  of  theolo- 
gians in  New  England  who  insisted  that  in  order 
to  attain  the  highest  Christian  grace  one  must  be 
willing  to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God.  This 
doctrine  may  have  been  a  counsel  of  perfection, 
but  it  never  became  popular;  it  demanded  too 
much  of  human  nature.  And  it  is  too  much  to 
expect  of  a  nation  that  it  shall  welcome  foreign 
rule,  even  for  its  own  good.  To  the  West  Asia 
has  been  for  centuries  a  happy  hunting  ground  for 
territory,  political  power,  and  trade  opportu- 
nities ;  and  well-dressed,  well-bred  gentlemen,  deco- 
rated with  orders,  have  sat  around  tables  in 
London,  Paris  and  Berlin,  and  arranged  the 
affairs  of  Asia  and  divided  its  territory  without 
so  much  as  saying  "by  your  leave"  to  the  Asiatics. 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  45 

This  habit  of  dividing  and  distributing  the  estates 
of  living  nations  as  if  the  coroner  had  already  sat 
on  them  has  gone  on  so  long  that  any  kind  of 
protest  from  Asia  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  an 
impertinent  disturbance  of  what  is  called  the 
balance  of  power.  If  Persia  objects  to  having  her 
fate  decided  by  Russia  and  England  without  even 
a  formal  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  conference, 
then  Persia  must  be  firmly  reminded  that  her  own 
interests  demand  foreign  rule.  This  procedure 
fails  to  meet  the  requirements  of  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson's  maxim,  "be  good  yourself  and  make 
others  happy."  It  is  so  much  easier  to  be  happy 
yourself  and  make  others  good  ! 

Moreover,  the  first  intimate  contact  with  the 
West  was  not  a  kind  to  reassure  the  thoughtful 
Japanese.  For  many  centuries  the  Islands  were 
secluded,  not  by  design  but  by  distance  and  by 
the  rudimentary  conditions  of  ship  building  and 
navigation.  About  1300  that  daring,  adventu- 
rous Venetian,  Marco  Polo,  visited  Japan,  and,  on 
his  return  to  Europe,  gave  a  highly  imaginative 
report  of  the  wealth  of  the  country ;  its  temples 


46      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

and  palaces  were  roofed  with  gold  !  Thus  early 
began  the  misconceptions  of  the  Japanese  which 
persist  to  this  day. 

Foreigners  were  sometimes  wrecked  on  the  coasts, 
and  in  course  of  time  irregular  commercial  rela- 
tions were  established  by  Portuguese  and  Spanish 
traders.  Dutch  traders  also  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining a  foothold  in  the  country  and  retained 
it,  though  in  a  very  limited  way  and  under  very 
humiliating  conditions,  through  the  period  of 
seclusion  which  followed. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  recite  the  events  which 
preceded  the  enforcement  of  the  policy  of  rigorous 
suspension  of  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  nor  to  refer  to  disputed  points.  The  story 
may  be  briefly  told :  in  1549  Francis  Xavier,  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  devoted  leaders  of  the 
Society  of  the  Jesuits  founded  by  Loyola  years 
before,  landed  in  Japan,  was  received  with  great 
cordiality  and  began  an  active  and  aggressive 
work ;  preaching,  teaching,  building  churches  and 
hospitals,  and  powerfully  appealing,  by  a  rich 
and  elaborate  ritual,  to  the  aesthetic  as  well  as  to 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  47 

the  religious  sensibilities  of  the  people.  The  new 
faith  made  rapid  progress  and  speedily  gained  a 
strong  foothold  in  the  country.  Its  converts  were 
largely  from  the  most  influential  classes  and  in- 
cluded some  of  the  most  powerful  nobles,  princes, 
generals  and  officials  of  high  rank.  The  Jesuits 
were  followed  by  other  orders,  including  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans;  it  seemed  as  if 
these  ardent  and  able  priests  would  convert  the 
nation. 

But  they  had  not  only  a  passionate  conviction 
that  they  were  the  teachers  of  the  only  way  of 
salvation ;  they  had  also  the  Western  sense  of 
superiority ;  they  became  covetous  and  arrogant. 
It  was  a  militant  age  and  they  were  militant 
preachers.  In  thirty-two  years  there  were  more 
than  two  hundred  churches  in  Japan  and  it  was 
claimed  that  the  converts  were  numbered  by  the 
hundred  thousands.  The  later  story  is  confused, 
but  there  was  lack  of  toleration  on  both  sides. 
Buddhist  temples  were  destroyed  and  Buddhist 
priests  killed. 

The  government  began  to  be  suspicious  of  the 


48      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

movement,  and  its  suspicions  were  confirmed  by 
the  Portuguese  and  the  Dutch,  who  warned  the 
authorities  that  the  aim  of  the  Spanish  teachers 
was  political,  and  that  the  subjugation  of  the 
country  would  follow  the  further  propagation  of 
the  foreign  faith.  They  enforced  their  position 
by  telling  the  story  of  the  Armada  and  of  recent 
events  in  the  Netherlands. 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  Japanese 
government  believed  that  it  was  face  to  face 
with  a  widespread  conspiracy  against  the  in- 
dependence of  the  country  and,  after  the  manner 
of  the  times  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  Asia,  its  hand 
fell  on  the  foreign  priests  and  their  converts  with 
crushing  power.  There  were  local  revolts,  but 
after  a  period  of  terrible  persecutions  all  foreigners 
except  the  Dutch  were  expelled  from  the  country, 
Christianity  was  destroyed  root  and  branch  with 
a  ruthless  hand  and  existed  only  in  secret  in  the 
constancy  of  a  few  believers  in  the  South,  Japan 
was  closed  to  the  world,  the  Japanese  were  for- 
bidden to  leave  the  country  on  pain  of  death, 
ships  were  limited  in  size  so  as  to  make  foreign 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  49 

voyages  impossible,  and  to  receive  a  letter  from 
abroad  was  a  capital  offense.  The  doors  were 
locked  and  bolted  against  the  world ;  so  ended  the 
first  chapter  of  Japanese  relations  with  the  West. 
For  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  Japan  was 
free  from  war  and  developed  a  society  ruled  by 
rigid  conventions,  which  prescribed  the  most 
minute  details  of  manner  and  life.  But  toward 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  foreign  vessels 
began  to  be  seen  in  Japanese  waters.  In  1797  the 
American  flag  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the 
harbor  of  Nagasaki ;  whalers  found  their  way  to 
the  most  remote  waters ;  ships  were  occasionally 
wrecked  in  the  Sea  of  Japan ;  and  in  the  United 
States  demands  began  to  be  made  that  Japan 
should  be  compelled  to  come  into  friendly  relations. 
During  the  Presidency  of  John  Quincy  Adams, 
and,  later,  during  that  of  Andrew  Jackson,  these 
demands  became  insistent.  Various  attempts 
were  made  by  Americans  and  English  to  open 
communications  with  the  Japanese  government, 
but  they  were  all  unsuccessful.  Meantime  the 
whaling  industry  had  become  very  important; 


50      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  opium  war  had  opened  China  to  foreign 
trade;  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  had 
given  a  strong  impulse  to  trade  and  travel  on  the 
Pacific,  and  a  plan  to  run  a  line  of  steamers  from 
San  Francisco  to  Hong  Kong  made  the  establish- 
ment of  a  coaling  station  on  the  Japanese  islands 
a  matter  of  prime  importance. 

Commodore  Perry  had  long  believed  that  under 
proper  conditions  access  to  the  government  of 
Japan  could  be  secured,  and  he  was  commissioned 
to  take  charge  of  an  expedition  for  that  purpose. 
A  fleet  of  four  men-of-war  sailed  from  Norfolk 
on  the  24th  of  November,  1852,  and  entered 
Yeddo  Bay  on  July  8,  1853.  Its  arrival  awakened 
great  curiosity,  and  the  shores  of  the  Bay  were 
crowded  with  people.  Commodore  Perry  had  a 
definite  plan  and  he  carried  it  out  courteously 
but  firmly;  he  refused  to  conduct  negotiations 
through  the  Dutch,  who  had  kept  a  precarious 
foothold  in  Nagasaki,  or  through  the  Chinese, 
but  insisted  on  dealing  directly  with  the  Japanese 
government,  arid  after  many  delays  consent  was 
reluctantly  obtained  for  the  delivery  of  a  letter 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  51 

from  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan. 

After  the  delivery  of  this  letter  the  American 
fleet  withdrew;  with  the  intimation  that  it  would 
return  to  receive  the  answer.  The  closed  door 
was  now  ajar,  though  it  had  not  yet  been  opened ; 
the  American  Commodore  succeeded  because  to 
an  adequate  show  of  force  he  united  the  most 
scrupulous  regard  for  Japanese  feeling  and  con- 
vinced the  Japanese  government  that  the  inten- 
tions of  the  United  States  were  not  only  peaceful 
but  friendly. 

The  expedition  placed  the  government  of  the 
Shogun,  with  whom  the  Americans  had  dealt  and 
whom  they  very  naturally  supposed  was  the  Em- 
peror, in  a  very  difficult  position.  National 
sentiment  was  setting  strongly  toward  the  Em- 
peror, and  the  Shogun's  power  was  already  seriously 
undermined ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  quite  evi- 
dent that  Japan  was  in  no  condition  to  maintain 
her  isolation  by  armed  resistance.  The  Shogun 
took  counsel  with  the  Daimyos,  and  they  declared, 
almost  to  a  man,  against  opening  the  country. 


52      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

The  Shogun  was  now  between  the  upper  and  the 
lower  millstones ;  facing  a  revolt  on  the  one  hand 
and  an  invasion  which  the  country  was  powerless 
to  resist  on  the  other.  He  chose  the  policy  that 
seemed  safest  for  the  immediate  future,  and 
preparations  were  made  for  defense.  Forts  were 
built,  deep-toned  bells  were  melted  and  trans- 
formed into  cannon ;  practice  with  foreign  fire- 
arms became  the  order  of  the  day ;  and  the 
country,  which  distrusted  all  foreign  intentions, 
prepared  to  defend  its  independence.  AVhile  these 
warlike  preparations  were  going  on  the  Shogun 
was  fortunate  to  escape  from  an  impossible  posi- 
tion by  death. 

On  the  13th  day  of  February  of  the  following 
year,  1854,  Commodore  Periy  returned  with  a 
larger  squadron.  After  many  preliminaries,  in- 
cluding the  hospitalities  in  which  the  Japanese 
happily  combine  formality  with  cordiality  and 
graciousness,  and  the  interchange  of  presents 
which  has  accompanied  all  transactions  in  Japan 
since  the  beginning  of  time,  a  treaty  was  signed,  by 
the  terms  of  which  peace  and  amity  were  estab- 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  53 

lished  between  the  two  countries,  certain  ports 
were  opened  to  American  ships  and  provision 
made  for  shipwrecked  sailors,  American  Consuls 
were  permitted  to  reside  in  the  country,  and 
various  other  privileges  were  granted  Americans. 

This  radical  departure  from  the  policy  of  two 
and  a  half  centuries  created  great  excitement 
throughout  the  country,  which  was  divided  into 
two  parties  :  one  favoring  foreign  intercourse  and 
one  determined  to  resist  it.  The  latter  declared 
that  in  making  a  treaty  opening  the  country  the 
Shogun  had  exceeded  his  powers,  and  that  no 
treaty  was  binding  until  it  had  been  ratified  by 
the  Emperor. 

The  United  States  and  Japan  were  fortunate  in 
the  spirit  of  fairness  and  breadth  of  view  of 
Commodore  Perry,  who  recognized  not  only  the 
high  degree  of  civilization  reached  by  the  Japanese 
but  respected  their  rights  as  a  nation  at  a  time 
when  they  were  not  in  condition  to  enforce  those 
rights.  They  were  equally  fortunate  in  the  selec- 
tion of  Mr.  Townsend  Harris  as  the  first  diplo- 
matic envoy  from  this  country  to  Japan.  A  man 


54      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

of  ability  and  courage,  a  prominent  citizen  of  New 
York,  to  whom  the  city  owes  the  foundation  of 
the  college  which  bears  its  name,  Mr.  Harris 
had  the  patience,  tact  and  good  will  essential 
in  dealing  with  an  alarmed  and  sensitive  people. 
He  so  completely  won  the  confidence  of  the 
Shogun's  government  that  he  became  later  its 
trusted  adviser  in  foreign  affairs.  He  negotiated 
additional  treaties  which  greatly  enlarged  the 
concessions  to  Americans,  and  as  a  result  similar 
treaties  were  made  with  European  nations. 

Japan  was  now  open,  under  certain  conditions, 
to  the  world ;  but  the  shock  to  Japanese  traditions 
and  institutions  wras  great ;  it  was  like  a  major 
operation  of  the  most  serious  nature  and  the  dis- 
turbance of  long  existing  conditions  was  revolution- 
ary in  its  suddenness  and  intensity.  An  unsettled 
period  followed ;  foreigners  were  attacked  in  a  num- 
ber of  instances  and  the  Shogun  was  powerless  to 
protect  them.  The  situation  was  rendered  almost 
impossible  by  the  existence  of  the  dual  government 
which  foreigners  did  not  understand  and  which 
formed  an  element  of  almost  hopeless  confusion. 


IN  TIME   OF  CHANGE  55 

In  1862  the  first  embassy  left  Japan  on  what  was 
really  a  tour  of  discovery.  The  people  had  been 
taught  that  Western  peoples  were  unfriendty 
barbarians ;  the  members  of  the  embassy  found 
themselves  the  guests  of  powerful  nations,  re- 
ceived everywhere  with  the  utmost  respect  and 
courtesy.  They  were  welcomed  in  every  capital 
as  friends  with  a  hospitality  of  which  they  had 
not  dreamed.  The  strength  of  Japan  has  always 
been  an  inward  strength ;  the  nation  has  had  an 
indomitable  spirit ;  it  has  been  housed,  not  without 
beauty  and  even  splendor,  but  outward  Japan 
seems  fragile  to  a  foreigner.  The  embassy  saw 
for  the  first  time  the  impressive  buildings  of  the 
West  and  realized  the  power  of  its  armaments. 
They  returned  convinced  that  only  one  policy 
was  possible  to  Japan :  the  establishment  of 
friendly  relations  with  the  Western  nations. 

But  the  countiy  was  not  persuaded  to  accept 
this  policy  until,  as  the  result  of  attacks  on  foreign- 
ers, the  overwhelming  superiority  of  Western 
ships,  arms  and  military  methods  was  demon- 
strated by  the  destruction  of  Shimonosiki.  In- 


56      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

ternal  dissensions  culminated  in  a  brief  civil 
war.  Another  Shogun  had  died  and  the  office 
came  to  a  man  who  accepted  it  with  the  greatest 
reluctance ;  he  was  destined  to  be  the  last  of 
the  Shoguns.  The  Mikado  also  died  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  then  in  his  fifteenth  year, 
who  was  destined  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  Em- 
perors in  the  history  of  the  country  and  one  of 
the  greatest  rulers  of  modern  times.  In  November, 
1867,  the  Shogun  surrendered  his  authority  to 
the  Emperor.  Some  disorder  followed,  but  was 
suppressed.  In  1869,  Tokyo  became  the  capital 
of  the  empire,  and  the  stage  wras  set  for  the  most 
remarkable  transformation  scene  in  the  long 
drama  of  history. 

In  the  same  year  the  Emperor  took  what  has 
been  called  the  charter  oath,  in  the  form  of  five  ar- 
ticles, promising  the  establishment  of  a  deliberate 
assembly  and  the  decision  of  all  measures  by  public 
opinion,  the  study  of  the  principles  of  social  and 
political  economics,  disregard  of  absurd  usages, 
the  administration  of  impartial  justice,  and  declar- 
ing that  knowledge  should  be  sought  wherever  it 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  57 

might  be  found  throughout  the  world.  Ancestor 
worship  was  the  key  to  the  life  of  Old  Japan; 
the  search  for  knowledge  is  both  the  secret  and 
the  master  passion  of  New  Japan. 

In  the  reorganization  of  the  nation  the  next  great 
step  was  the  surrender  by  the  Daimyos  of  their 
feudal  rights.  In  a  striking  memorial  to  the 
Emperor  they  said : 

"The  place  where  we  live  is  the  Emperor's 
land,  and  the  food  which  we  eat  is  grown  by  the 
Emperor's  men.  How  can  we  make  it  our  own  ? 
We  now  reverently  offer  up  the  lists  of  our  posses- 
sions and  men,  with  the  prayer  that  the  Emperor 
will  take  good  measures  for  rewarding  those  to 
whom  reward  is  due  and  take  from  them  to  whom 
punishment  is  due." 

The  Samurai  to  the  number  of  about  450,000 
surrendered  their  swords.  Feudalism  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  single  blow. 

By  way  of  preparing  the  country  for  constitu- 
tional government  local  assemblies  were  estab- 
lished in  1878 ;  and  ten  years  later,  in  1889,  in 
fulfillment  of  his  promise,  the  Emperor  promul- 


58      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

gated  a  constitution  and  took  a  solemn  oath  to 
govern  the  country  under  its  limitations.  Mean- 
while the  reorganization  of  the  nation  under  the 
leadership  of  a  ruler  of  courage  and  foresight, 
aided  by  a  group  of  able  and  patriotic  men,  was 
transforming  administrative  methods,  education, 
the  judicial  system,  currency,  banking  and  business, 
the  organization  and  equipment  of  the  army  and 
navy,  and  methods  of  transportation. 

There  is  no  mystery  in  this  transformation  of  a 
nation  within  the  brief  period  of  two  generations ; 
the  secret  lies  in  the  discipline  of  a  thousand  years, 
in  the  thoroughness  of  organization  which  made 
it  possible  to  direct  the  energies  of  a  nation  as  if  it 
were  one  person,  and  in  the  passion  for  education 
made  effective  by  habits  of  self-denial,  tireless 
patience  and  persistent  courage. 

In  every  school  in  Japan  there  is  a  copy  of  the 
Imperial  Rescript  of  Education  issued  in  1891, 
which  is  read  at  all  important  public  ceremonies, 
the  audience  standing  in  reverent  attention.  It 
is  one  of  the  group  of  State  papers  which  have 
guided  and  expressed  the  development  of  Modern 


IN  TIME  OF  CHANGE  59 

Japan ;  in  its  definition  of  the  ideals  of  the  nation 
of  to-day  it  is  a  key  to  the  spirit  which  animates 
the  most  aspiring  Japanese : 

Know  Ye;  Our  Subjects : 

Our  Imperial  Ancestors  have  founded  Our 
Empire  on  a  basis  broad  and  everlasting,  and 
have  deeply  and  firmly  implanted  virtue.  Our 
subjects,  ever  united  in  loyalty  and  filial  piety, 
have  from  generation  to  generation  illustrated  the 
beauty  thereof.  This  is  the  glory  and  the  funda- 
mental character  of  Our  Empire  and  herein  also 
lies  the  source  of  Our  education.  Ye,  Our  sub- 
jects, be  filial  to  your  parents,  affectionate  to  your 
brothers  and  sisters ;  as  husbands  and  wives  be 
harmonious,  as  friends  true ;  bear  yourselves  in 
modesty  and  moderation;  extend  your  benevo- 
lence to  all ;  pursue  learning  and  cultivate  the 
arts,  and  thereby  develop  intellectual  faculties 
and  perfect  moral  powers ;  furthermore,  advance 
public  good  and  promote  common  interests ; 
always  respect  the  Constitution  and  observe  the 
laws ;  should  emergency  arise,  offer  yourselves 


60      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

courageously  to  the  State ;  and  thus  guard  and 
maintain  the  prosperity  of  Our  Imperial  Throne, 
coeval  with  heaven  and  earth.  So  shall  ye  not 
only  be  Our  good  and  faithful  subjects,  but  render 
illustrious  the  best  traditions  of  your  Forefathers. 
The  way  here  set  forth  is  indeed  the  teaching 
bequeathed  by  Our  Imperial  Ancestors  to  be 
observed  alike  by  Their  Descendants  and  the 
subjects,  infallible  for  all  ages  and  true  in  all 
places.  It  is  Our  wish  to  take  it  to  heart  in  all 
reverence,  in  common  with  you,  our  subjects,  that 
we  may  all  thus  attain  to  the  same  virtue. 


CHAPTER  V 

PKICE   MARKS  AND   VALUES 

MR.  F.  HOPKINSON  SMITH,  who  has  redis- 
covered Venice  for  many  Americans,  has  said 
with  great  emphasis  that  the  City  of  the  Doges 
should  be  entered  for  the  first  time  in  the  early 
morning  or  the  late  afternoon,  and  he  has  gone 
so  far  as  to  urge  travelers  who  find  themselves 
about  to  arrive  in  full  light  of  day  to  leave  the 
train  and  wait  at  some  outlying  station  for  the 
hour  which  not  only  poetizes  but  reveals  the 
Venice  of  the  great  painters.  For  neither  cities 
nor  men  are  really  seen  when  they  are  seen  at 
their  worst;  and  the  atmosphere  which  modu- 
lates tones  and  softens  lines  is  as  much  a  part 
of  the  picture  as  the  structure  of  the  landscape. 
There  is  vital  truth  as  well  as  shrewd  observa- 
tion in  the  maxim,  "The  cynic  knows  the  price 
of  everything  and  the  value  of  nothing."  In 

61 


62      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  appraisement  of  character,  whether  personal 
or  national,  we  search  for  values,  not  for  prices. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  greatest  services  to  civil- 
ization have  incalculable  values,  but  bear  no 
price  mark.  No  one  ever  thought  of  paying 
Lincoln  for  his  sublime  patience,  or  Phillips 
Brooks  for  his  equally  sublime  faith.  Nor  has 
any  attempt  ever  been  made  to  put  a  price  on 
the  service  which  Holland  rendered  in  the  War 
for  the  Liberation  of  Humanity. 

It  is  easy  to  make  a  large  collection  of  American 
price  marks,  to  add  them  together  and  to  set 
down  the  result  as  the  value  of  American  civiliza- 
tion. Our  critics  have  brought  together  an  ap- 
palling mass  of  statistics  about  divorce,  homi- 
cide, lynchings,  railway  accidents,  defalcations, 
and  blatant  vulgarities  of  many  kinds,  and  pub- 
lished the  sum  total  as  a  definition  of  America 
and  the  Americans.  And  in  many  cases  these 
statements  have  been  records  of  fact.  The 
trouble  has  been  that,  while  they  have  been 
true,  they  have  not  been  the  truth.  These  critics 
have  arranged  the  price  marks  very  skillfull}', 


PRICE  MARKS  AND   VALUES  63 

but  the  values  have  wholly  escaped  them.  The 
ability  to  understand  a  people  is  not  so  much  a 
matter  of  temperament  as  of  spirit  and  character, 
plus  broad  intelligence.  Among  foreign  observers 
who  have  commented  on  the  Americans,  Mr. 
Bryce  holds  an  enviable  primacy,  not  because 
he  has  been  blind  to  the  serious  defects  of  Ameri- 
can society,  but  because  he  has  the  faculty  of 
vision  as  well  as  of  observation  and  has  seen 
things  in  the  large  as  well  as  in  detail.  In  his 
conclusions  facts  close  at  hand  have  not  obscured 
more  significant  facts  at  longer  range.  And 
Mr.  Brownell's  "French  Traits"  has  the  same 
illuminating  quality;  any  tourist  can  see  Paris, 
but  the  foreigners  who  see  France  are  few. 

There  is  a  maxim  which  one  who  attempts  to 
interpret  the  mind  of  a  foreign  people,  or  to  re- 
port conditions  in  a  foreign  country,  should  make 
the  law  of  observation:  "Neither  to  laugh  nor 
to  cry,  but  to  understand."  When  unscientific 
human  nature  stands  for  the  first  time  in  the 
presence  of  new  conditions,  of  strange  peoples, 
of  novel  truth,  its  impulse  is  to  deride  or  ridicule, 


64      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

or  to  fall  into  a  panic  and  shout  "  Dangerous  !" 
In  our  own  time,  when  the  fundamental  law  of 
growth,  which  men  of  prophetic  mind  have  dimly 
discerned  for  generations,  was  clearly  defined  a 
generation  ago,  it  met  with  anathemas  from  one 
group  of  earnest  people  and  with  derisive  shouts 
from  another;  and  the  generation  which  heard 
the  cries  of  alarm  and  chorus  of  laughter  which 
greeted  the  appearance  of  "The  Origin  of  Species" 
lived  to  hear  a  leader  of  the  spiritual  life  declare 
that  the  explanation  of  the  social  and  economic 
conditions  of  the  world  as  the  results  of  a  process 
of  evolution  came  just  in  time  to  save  many  of 
the  most  thoughtful  men  and  women  from  despair. 
The  music  of  Wagner,  the  plays  of  Ibsen,  the 
idea  that  human  conditions  are  a  vital  part  of 
any  intelligible  and  workable  theory  of  economics, 
have  passed  through  the  same  experience.  De- 
rided and  denounced  at  the  start,  they  have  be- 
come part  of  the  accepted  order  of  things,  neither 
fulfilling  all  the  prophecies  of  ultimate  evil  made 
by  their  opponents  nor  all  the  predictions  of 
ultimate  good  made  by  their  sponsors. 


PRICE  MARKS  AND  VALUES  65 

The  foreigner  in  the  country  village  is  an  ob- 
ject of  suspicion  if  not  of  insult.  In  parts  of 
Japan  remote  from  cities  he  is  a  center  of  popular 
interest,  and,  like  a  celebrity  on  the  golf  course, 
speedily  finds  himself  followed  by  a  "gallery" 
eager  to  examine  his  dress  and  curious  to  know 
what  he  is  doing.  It  must  be  added  that  while 
this  "gallery"  is  very  curious,  it  is  friendly,  and 
never  intentionally  offensive.  A  bow  and  a 
smile  go  a  long  way  in  Japan.  In  America  a 
Chinaman  appearing  in  his  native  dress  in  the 
streets  of  a  remote  village  is  likely  to  find  the 
boys  more  sportive  than  polite ;  and  not  long 
ago  a  little  Japanese  lady,  whose  modesty  and 
evident  refinement  ought  to  have  protected  her 
in  any  civilized  country,  was  a  target  for  rotten 
fruit  at  the  hands  of  young  hoodlums  in  a  street 
hi  San  Francisco. 

Emerson,  to  whom  fear  was  unknown,  and 
derision  an  attitude  of  mind  as  extinct  as  chain 
armor,  defined  a  friend  as  one  who  makes  us  do 
what  we  can.  The  idea  of  friendship  as  a  kind 
of  amiable  blindness  is  as  misleading  as  the  idea 


66      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

that  love  wears  a  bandage  over  its  eyes.  The 
great  service  of  friendship,  as  of  love,  is  through 
clear-sightedness  to  help  us  bring  out  the  best 
that  is  in  us.  One  would  far  better  find  his  own 
way  than  follow  a  blind  guide.  The  friend  who 
always  reflects  our  moods  and  confirms  our  judg- 
ment of  ourselves  is  more  dangerous  than  an 
enemy ;  for  the  truth  is  a  tonic  even  when  it  is 
flung  at  us  as  a  missile,  and  commendation  which 
we  do  not  deserve  fastens  attention  on  the  weak- 
ness which  it  attempts  to  conceal.  Americans 
have  suffered  little  from  flatterers  and  have  had 
slight  experience  of  being  pleasantly  discussed 
by  their  neighbors ;  but  the  discipline  of  mis- 
representation and  criticism  has  probably  tem- 
pered what  once  promised  to  be  a  very  monoto- 
nous habit  of  self-appreciation.  Unfair  criticism 
is  irritating,  but  it  is  more  wholesome  than  flattery. 
If  the  student  of  a  nation  is  neither  to  laugh 
nor  to  cry,  but  to  understand,  he  must  approach 
a  foreign  country  as  a  friend ;  for  sympathy  is 
the  only  key  that  unlocks  the  door  to  character, 
to  truth,  to  art,  or  to  life.  The  popular  opinion, 


PRICE  MARKS  AND  VALUES  67 

derived  from  the  practice  of  small  or  malicious 
minds,  that  criticism  is  a  kind  of  organized  fault- 
finding, is  as  far  from  the  truth  as  were  some 
old-time  fathers  who  believed  that  corporal 
punishment  was  the  only  form  of  parental  disci- 
pline. A  very  small  mind  can  see  a  blemish  on 
the  character  of  a  great  man,  but  only  greatness 
can  recognize  greatness :  and  Goethe's  correction 
of  the  cynical  maxim  that  no  man  is  great  to  his 
valet  is  a  side  light  on  the  qualifications  of  the 
true  critic.  The  test  of  friendship  is  willingness 
to  inflict  pain  when  pain  is  a  step  towards  health ; 
and  truth  is  the  only  sure  foundation  on  which 
friendship  can  rest.  If  truth-telling  becomes  a 
kind  of  recreation,  as  it  did  in  the  case  of  Matthew 
Arnold,  it  may  lose  a  little  of  its  force  of  appeal, 
but  it  remains  an  incentive,  and  in  the  long  run 
its  service  survives  the  momentary  pain  it  in- 
flicts. The  friend  of  a  nation  is  neither  a  flatterer 
nor  a  mere  recorder  of  pleasant  impressions;  he 
is  one  who  tries  in  all  sincerity  and  sympathy  to 
discover  the  truth  and  to  tell  it  in  simple  loyalty 
to  the  best  of  which  a  people  is  capable. 


68      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Japan  is  probably  to-day  the  most  misunder- 
stood country  in  the  world.  Its  achievements 
are  matters  of  history ;  but  its  spirit,  its  aims, 
and  its  character  have  been  as  variously  inter- 
preted as  if  it  had  never  expressed  itself  in  re- 
ligion, in  art,  or  in  action.  Its  most  dogmatic 
interpreters  are  those  who  have  never  seen  it. 
They  seem  to  have  divined  its  secret  purposes 
and  uncovered  its  most  subtle  plots.  In  their 
overwrought  imaginations  it  is  a  group  of  islands 
in  whose  harbors  vast  fleets  are  being  secretly 
constructed,  with  almost  superhuman  rapidity 
and  skill,  for  the  conquest  of  distant  continents. 
The  fact  that  it  has  fought  only  twice  with  foreign 
nations  in  nearly  three  centuries,  while  the  lists 
of  wars  in  the  West  during  the  same  period  fill 
pages  of  history,  and  that  both  these  wars  were 
fought  to  preserve  what  it  believed  to  be  its 
national  integrity ;  that  it  is  heavily  burdened 
with  debt  and  staggering  under  the  weight  of  a 
taxation  which  its  splendid  patriotism  alone 
makes  bearable ;  that  the  one  policy  on  which 
the  people  as  a  whole  insist  with  increasing  vehe- 


PRICE  MARKS  AND   VALUES  69 

mence  is  the  reduction  of  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment ;  that  it  lies  exposed  to  attack  from  a  power 
which  fights  without  money,  and  waits  and 
watches  with  Asiatic  patience  while  it  advances 
like  a  glacier ;  that  the  Japanese  people  are  eager 
for  the  opportunity  of  commercial  development 
and  are  persuaded  that  peace  is  vitally  related 
to  that  development ;  that  they  are  facing  prob- 
lems more  difficult  than  those  which  confront 
any  other  people  —  these  facts  have  no  weight 
with  those  valiant  journalists  and  politicians 
who  ciy  aloud  and  spare  not,  and  whose  prophe- 
cies of  approaching  war  fill  the  Japanese  with 
amazed  incredulity. 

From  this  group  the  Japanese  learn  that  they 
are  a  warlike  nation,  swiftly  and  secretly  arming 
to  subdue  the  peaceful  and  sluggish  Americans. 
From  another  group  they  learn  that  they  are  a 
race  of  poets  and  artists,  to  whom  war  is  hateful 
and  business  an  interruption  of  the  peaceful 
contemplation  of  beauty;  that  they  live  in  a 
country  in  which  the  cherry  trees  are  always  in 
bloom,  and  the  men  of  affairs  are  always  writing 


70      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

poems  to  spring;  that  the  strife  for  excellence 
in  the  composition  of  tanka  is  the  only  kind  of 
competition  known  in  the  country ;  that  the 
lotus  blooms  perennially  in  their  happy  land  and 
that  life  is  a  happy  dream  of  ease  and  devotion 
to  the  service  of  art. 

This  also  fills  the  Japanese  with  amazement ; 
for  while  they  love  the  cherry  tree,  they  know 
that  its  bloom  is  as  fleeting  as  a  breath  from 
fairyland ;  and  that  while  their  hands  have 
lost  none  of  their  ancient  cunning,  and  fashion 
delicate  and  exquisite  works  of  art  with  the 
skill  born  of  generations  of  training,  and  that  the 
instinct  for  form  and  color  is  part  of  the  heritage 
of  the  humblest  worker,  the  nation  toils  unceas- 
ingly with  meager  natural  resources  but  with 
indomitable  patience ;  and  that  while  the  love- 
liness of  Miyanoshita,  Nikko,  Nara,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  landscapes  remains  inviolate,  black 
smoke  pours  from  lofty  chimneys  over  many 
ancient  cities ;  that  education  tends  even  too 
strongly  toward  technical  expertness ;  and  that 
the  determination  to  master  the  methods  of  ap- 


Smiling  Childhood 


PRICE  MARKS  AND  VALUES  71 

plied  science  and  meet  the  competition  of  the 
West  in  practical  achievement  without  fear  or 
favor  has  become  almost  too  strong  among  their 
young  men. 

Japan  has  passed  through  several  stages  of 
what  may  be  called  world-opinion.  When  it 
first  emerged  from  its  seclusion  of  more  than 
two  centuries,  its  life,  in  its  outward  aspects, 
had  a  patriarchal  simplicity  and  an  idyllic  charm ; 
and  the  poetry  of  its  ancient  feudal  system  and 
of  its  old  faiths  and  popular  festivals  captivated 
the  imagination  of  the  West,  and  a  kind  of  Pierre 
Loti  atmosphere  enfolded  it  as  the  home  of  poets 
and  artists  and  lovers.  And  the  West  lost  its 
heart  to  Japan,  and  idealized  it  with  the  ease 
and  freedom  made  possible  by  great  distance 
and  very  superficial  knowledge. 

Then  came  the  war  with  Russia,  and  the  reve- 
lation of  Japanese  patriotism  and  of  a  military 
genius  and  efficiency  which  astonished  the  world. 
And  straightway  Japan  became  the  mother  of 
heroes  and  the  home  of  fighters,  to  whom  war  was 
not  only  a  matter  of  inward  loyalty  and  an  op- 


72      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

portunity  of  sublime  courage,  but  a  science,  the 
most  unimportant  detail  of  which  had  been  mas- 
tered in  advance ;  and  a  great  wave  of  admira- 
tion for  a  heroic  and  splendidly  trained  nation 
passed  over  the  world.  When  the  smoke  drifted 
away  from  the  battlefields  of  Manchuria,  Japan 
was  revealed  as  a  Power  of  the  first  class,  with 
a  navy  and  an  army  of  extraordinary  efficiency  ; 
and  the  West  realized  that  a  new  force  had  ap- 
peared in  the  Far  East  and  that  incalculable 
changes  were  coming,  which  would  modify  con- 
ditions which  Europe  had  comfortably  taken 
for  granted  were  permanent.  The  artists  and 
poets  had  become  expert  fighters. 

Realizing,  as  did  the  Germans  after  their 
triumphs  of  a  generation  ago,  that  a  powerful 
nation  must  have  great  resources,  the  Japanese 
turned  to  commerce  and  manufactures  and  be- 
came formidable  competitors,  and  the  working 
class  began  to  emigrate  to  countries  where  higher 
wages  were  paid.  Soon  there  was  a  rift  in  the 
lute.  The  Japanese  began  to  hear  less  of  their 
achievements  and  more  about  their  faults.  The 


PRICE  MARKS  AND  VALUES  73 

venerable  Chinese  cashier  story  began  its  travels 
in  America;  and  was  innocently  accepted;  by 
people  who  did  not  understand  his  expertness 
in  dealing  with  the  perplexing  currencies  and 
complicated  exchange  of  the  Far  East,  as  a  wit- 
ness to  the  prevalence  of  dishonesty  in  Japan; 
the  politeness  of  the  Japanese,  of  wiiich  much 
had  been  said,  became  an  evidence  of  insincerity. 
Will  some  one  explain  why  the  peoples  who  have 
not  the  time  or  the  inclination  to  be  polite  agree 
that  the  polite  nations  are  insincere  ?  France 
will  sympathize  with  Japan  in  this  experience. 

Through  these  changes  of  opinion  with  regard 
to  their  character  it  may  be  suspected  that,  while 
the  Japanese  have  changed  many  of  their  habits, 
occupations,  tools,  and  methods  of  education, 
they  are  the  same  people  whom  the  West  idealized 
a  generation  ago ;  and  that  if  they  had  qualities 
worthy  of  admiration  then,  they  have  qualities 
worthy  of  admiration  now.  They  have  become 
practical;  but  they  still  love  the  cherry  tree  and 
WTite  poems  to  it ;  they  are  developing  great 
business  activity,  but  they  continue  to  paint 


74      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

with  almost  unrivaled  delicacy  and  precision ; 
they  support  a  strong  army  and  navy,  but  both 
are  kept  in  high  efficiency  for  defensive  purposes. 
In  a  word,  they  are  like  other  nations  :  they  have 
great  qualities  and  they  have  the  defects  of  their 
qualities.  They  are  entitled  to  fair,  intelligent, 
and  discriminating  interpretation. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EAST   AND   WEST 

"AND  never  the  twain  shall  meet,"  says  Kipling. 

But  they  have  met ;  they  are  meeting  every 
hour  in  numberless  places  and  ways.  These 
words  are  written  in  an  old  Chinese  city;  but 
the  morning  newspaper  which  has  just  been  laid 
on  the  table  of  the  reading-room  of  the  hotel 
prints  half  a  column  report  by  cable  of  devastating 
floods  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  with  details  of  the 
loss  of  life  and  property  at  Dayton  and  Colum- 
bus !  One  is  brought  here  by  an  American  loco- 
motive in  an  American  Pullman,  and  finds  half 
a  dozen  Americans  waiting  at  a  finely  appointed 
station  to  take  the  Trans-Siberian  express  south. 
There  is  a  cash  register  at  the  cigar-stand.  This 
is  one  of  the  distributing  centers  of  the  bean- 
raising  country,  and  there  are  great  piles  of  bean- 
bags  waiting  to  go  to  Dairen  and  thence  to 

75 


76      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

America.  Incidentally  it  is  worth  noting  that 
not  long  ago  there  was  vociferous  complaint  that 
the  Japanese  were  creating  a  monopoly  of  this 
trade  and  taking  much  profitable  business  out 
of  American  hands.  The  same  complaint  came 
from  the  English ;  they  investigated,  and  dis- 
covered that  the  monopoly  was  not  artificial, 
but  was  being  secured  by  quicker  wit  and  greater 
adaptation  to  local  conditions.  The  Japanese 
were  not  content  to  deal  with  the  local  merchants, 
nor  were  they  dismayed  by  the  accommodations 
offered  by  Chinese  inns  in  remote  villages ;  they 
went  boldly  into  the  back  country  and  bought 
beans  on  the  ground  where  they  were  raised. 
The  English  discovered  the  secret  of  the  Japanese 
monopoly,  adopted  the  same  methods,  and  are 
now  becoming  monopolists  themselves,  to  the 
sorrow  of  the  Japanese,  who  for  a  time  had  the 
business  of  exporting  beans  well  in  hand.  This 
is  an  illuminating  example  of  a  whole  class  of 
criticisms  of  the  Japanese  and  of  the  explanations 
which  lie  on  the  surface  if  people  will  take  the 
trouble  to  study  local  conditions. 


EAST  AND  WEST  77 

The  American  who  came  to  Japan  to  get  away 
from  America,  and  found  a  stove  made  in  Peek- 
skill  on  the  wharf  in  Yokohama,  had  a  very  com- 
mon experience ;  and  so  did  the  American  family 
who  brought  a  large  supply  of  American  standard 
remedies  and  toilet  luxuries  with  them,  and 
found  all  these  things  in  a  case  in  the  first  hotel 
in  which  they  lodged  in  Japan.  There  are,  of 
course,  many  localities  into  which  foreign  con- 
veniences have  not  penetrated,  and  in  which  the 
foreigner  awakens  a  somewhat  embarrassing  at- 
tention ;  but  the  large  towns  in  which  the  stand- 
ard articles  of  foreign  use  cannot  be  found  are 
few. 

Of  course  there  are  many  who  will  tell  you 
that  these  evidences  of  contact  with  the  West  are 
misleading,  and  that  the  ancient  East  remains 
unchanged  and  unchangeable.  These  are  the 
people  to  whom  Mr.  Kipling's  phrase  which  pref- 
aces this  chapter  embodies  a  fundamental  fact 
in  the  histoiy  of  the  race,  and  one  which  only 
dreamers  and  idealists  will  challenge.  It  is  a 
picturesque  theory,  and  M.  Pierre  Loti  has  very 


78      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

plainly  expressed  his  hope  that  it  will  never  be 
refuted  by  changed  conditions.  Lord  Beacons- 
field  made  very  effective  use  of  the  "Asian  mys- 
tery/' intimating  that  the  Oriental  mind  is  im- 
penetrable to  the  less  subtle  Occidental  intelli- 
gence, and  that  Asia  has  a  secret  which  is  hidden 
from  Europe  and  America.  And  many  Western 
minds  have  yielded  to  the  spell  of  the  East  so 
completely  that  they  have  surrendered  their 
individual  quality  and  made  a  vain  effort  to  effect 
in  a  day  a  change  of  type  which  it  has  taken  cen- 
turies to  define. 

When  Mohini,  one  of  the  earliest  and  the  most 
interesting  of  the  Indian  teachers  wTho  have  come 
to  America,  was  asked  to  describe  the  methods 
by  which  an  inquirer  might  become  a  follower 
of  the  faith  he  held,  he  discouraged  the  attempt 
by  saying,  in  effect,  "You  have  your  path,  we 
have  ours;  our  path  is  not  for  you."  When 
he  was  told  that  the  Christian  faith  had  been 
tested  and  found  wanting,  he  replied  that  no  one 
had  or  could  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  the 
Christian  religion. 


EAST  AND  WEST  79 

It  was  the  wise  answer  of  a  wise  teacher,  and 
the  word  "path"  was  significant  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  men  of  the  East  and  the  men 
of  the  West.  They  are  not  different  in  kind,  but 
in  experience ;  there  is  no  secret  which  the  East 
holds  to  the  exclusion  of  the  West.  They  have 
traveled  in  different  paths  for  many  centuries; 
they  have  lived  under  different  skies,  in  different 
climates;  they  have  been  surrounded  by  differ- 
ent landscapes ;  environment  and,  for  many 
generations,  a  radically  different  heredity  have 
colored  the  very  texture  of  their  minds,  so  that 
the  differences  between  their  languages  are  sig- 
nificant of  the  differences  in  their  ways  of  think- 
ing. An  Oriental  will  say  frankly  that  his  chief 
difficulty  in  understanding  an  Occidental  is  not 
a  matter  of  language  but  a  mode  of  thought ; 
and  the  Occidental  will  tell  you  that,  difficult 
as  an  Eastern  language  is  to  a  student  from  the 
West,  the  real  difficulty  is  deeper :  it  is  a  differ- 
ence in  the  way  of  thinking.  There  is  a  funda- 
mental truth  at  the  base  of  Lander's  poetic 
phrase,  "We  are  what  winds  and  fountains  make 


80      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

us";  and  natural  conditions  as  divergent  as  the 
sublime  solitudes  of  the  Himalayas,  the  volcanic 
islands  on  which  the  Japanese  have  lived  for 
perhaps  three  thousand  years,  the  broad  fer- 
tility of  the  prairies  of  the  Central  West  in 
America,  have  left  deep  impressions  on  the  im- 
agination and  in  the  physical  character  of  many 
generations  on  both  sides  of  the  globe :  and  the 
obvious  differences  of  aspect  which  not  only  the 
landscape,  but  the  dress,  habits,  occupations 
and  bearing  of  the  East  and  West  reveal  even  to 
the  eye  of  the  careless  tourist  are  the  outward 
and  visible  signs  of  inward  and  invisible  differ- 
ences of  ideals,  standards  of  life,  and  interpre- 
tations of  the  mystery  of  the  world. 

When  the  largest  allowance  is  made  for  these 
differences,  they  still  remain,  so  far  as  the  nature 
of  the  men  who  reveal  them  is  concerned,  super- 
ficial ;  they  are  differences  of  environment, 
not  of  original  structure ;  they  tell  a  story  of 
roads  rather  than  of  men,  of  long  divergent 
paths  rather  than  of  divergent  orders  of  travelers. 
The  world  is  not  large ;  and  if  the  paths  which 


EAST  AND  WEST  81 

traverse  it  are  long  enough;  they  inevitably  strike 
into  parallel  lines  or  run  together. 

Differences  of  environment  and  of  racial  ex- 
perience have  created  an  Eastern  and  a  West- 
ern temperament ;  an  Eastern  way  of  looking 
at  life  and  the  world  and  a  Western  way ;  but 
the  human  spirit  is  one  and  the  same  in  both 
hemispheres,  and  there  is  no  kind  of  knowledge 
possessed  by  one  from  which  the  other  is  debarred 
by  racial  incapacity  from  understanding.  The 
two  sides  of  the  globe  form  a  complete  circle ; 
the  seas  which  once  seemed  almost  impassable 
barriers  have  now  become  highways  of  easy 
communication.  This  view  is  a  radical  depar- 
ture from  the  traditional  attitude  of  the  old-time 
trader  and  the  old-time  diplomatist ;  but,  how- 
ever unwelcome  it  may  be  to  those  who  hold  that 
the  East  is  the  natural  dependency  of  the  West 
and  the  normal  sphere  for  Western  control,  it 
is  the  view  which  has  long  been  held  by  men  of 
vision  in  the  West ;  and,  what  is  far  more  im- 
portant, it  is  the  view  which  the  East  is  holding 
with  increasing  energy  and  clearness  of  purpose. 


82      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

The  Englishman  who  said  that  things  had  come 
to  such  a  pass  in  Japan  that  a  foreigner  could  no 
longer  strike  a  Japanese  without  serious  danger 
of  being  sent  to  jail  bore  unwilling  testimony 
to  the  radical  change  which  is  taking  place  in 
the  East.  It  ought  to  be  added  that  the  Japa- 
nese have  never  been  patient  under  the  treat- 
ment which  too  many  Chinese  have  received  in 
their  own  cities  at  the  hands  of  some  foreigners 
less  civilized  than  the  people  whose  hospitality 
they  have  brutally  abused.  The  story  of  West- 
ern dealings  with  China  is  not  pleasant  reading 
for  the  man  to  whom  Christian  civilization  means 
the  diffusion  of  the  Christian  sense  of  justice, 
of  courtesy,  and  of  brotherliness ;  and  it  is  a 
story  with  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  Chinese 
will  not  become  familiar  until  its  harsh  selfish- 
ness has  been  softened  by  memories  of  a  later 
friendliness.  The  feeling  that  the  races  are  so 
far  apart  that  the  East  can  understand  no  West- 
ern language  but  a  kick,  or  a  blow  of  the  fist,  is 
the  root  of  much  of  that  Western  brutality  which 
inevitably  evoked  Eastern  ferocity. 


EAST  AND  WEST  83 

Many  who  have  had  business  dealings  with 
Eastern  peoples  and  have  lived  among  them 
for  long  periods  of  time  have  so  deeply  imbibed 
this  feeling  that  they  regard  any  other  view 
as  evidence  of  ignorance  of  the  Eastern  character. 
Practical  men  will  tell  you,  they  say,  that  it  is 
idle  to  deal  with  the  East  on  a  basis  of  good 
will  and  a  common  human  nature.  The  Eastern 
nature,  they  will  assure  you,  is  so  different  from 
the  Western  nature  that  no  real  understanding 
between  them  is  possible.  Years  ago  a  foreigner 
long  resident  in  the  East  was  riding  on  a  famous 
old  highway  in  Japan,  when  he  met  one  of  the 
most  powerful  Daimyos  coming  with  a  large 
company  of  retainers  from  the  opposite  direction. 
For  centuries  a  Daimyo  had  had  the  right  of 
way  in  Japan ;  other  travelers  waited  respect- 
fully until  he  had  passed.  This  foreigner  was 
warned  by  his  companions  of  the  danger  of  forc- 
ing a  passage  through  the  company  of  armed 
men  who  were  escorting  their  feudal  lord.  He 
replied,  "I  know  the  Orientals"  —  and  rode 
straight  to  his  death  at  the  hands  of  one  of  the 


84      JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

retainers  whose  chief  he  had  wantonly  insulted. 
He  did  not  know  the  Orientals,  and  he  paid  the 
penalty  which  ignorance  often  exacts.  And  there 
are  many  who  live  in  the  East  and  do  not  know 
the  East.  A  clear-sighted  observer,  as  the  result 
of  recent  travel,  said  that  the  smoking  rooms  of 
foreign  hotels  and  foreign  clubs  are  places  to 
avoid  if  one  wants  to  know  the  East.  There 
are  many  open-minded  and  high-minded  men 
in  the  great  company  of  foreigners  who  live  in 
the  East  for  business  purposes,  especially  among 
the  Americans,  who  have  never  been  accustomed 
to  govern  the  East  —  men  who  represent  their 
country  at  its  best ;  but  there  are  many  who 
assume  to  know  the  Orientals  because  they  live 
among  them,  and  forget  that  there  is  a  vast 
difference  between  access  to  knowledge  and 
knowledge  itself,  and  that  a  blind  man  may 
live  fifty  years  in  a  house  and  know  only  the 
shape  of  its  furnishings. 

One  may  get  much  trustworthy  information 
in  smoking  rooms  if  IK;  knows  how  to  distinguish 
between  those  to  whom  the  East  is  only  a  busi- 


EAST  AND  WEST  85 

ness  opportunity  and  the  Oriental  only  a  possible 
purchaser,  and  those  to  whom  the  East  is  half 
the  world  and  the  Oriental  a  fellow  human  being 
who  is  the  more  interesting  because  his  mental 
processes  are  less  direct  than  our  own.  On  the 
other  hand,  one  may  carry  from  smoking  rooms 
a  mass  of  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  stupid  in- 
tolerance sufficient  to  stock  a  good  old-time  book 
of  American  impressions  by  an  old-time  European 
observer  of  the  type  whom  Cooper  satirized. 

There  are  foreigners  living  in  all  parts  of  the 
East  who  not  only  live  in  the  East  but  with  it, 
and  who  enter  into  human  as  well  as  business 
relations  with  the  Orientals.  To  these  observers 
the  idea  of  a  permanent  barrier,  an  impassable 
gulf,  between  the  two  great  divisions  of  the 
human  race  is  a  mischievous  invention  of  those 
who  see  only  the  superficial  differences  and  have 
not  learned  that  under  what  Dr.  Nitobe  has 
called  the  institutional  mind  there  is  a  common 
human  mind  which  makes  it  possible  for  all  men 
not  only  to  understand  but  to  trust  one  another. 
Those  who  were  fortunate  enough  to  hear  the 


86      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

eloquent  tribute  which  Sir  Andrew  Fraser  paid 
to  the  nobility  and  loyalty  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter on  his  retirement  from  the  government  of 
the  most  turbulent  province  in  India  will  not 
forget  its  convincing  frankness,  and  were  not 
slow  to  discover  in  the  spirit  of  the  veteran  British 
proconsul  the  secret  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
Indian  temperament  and  attitude  of  mind.  For 
men  evoke  the  spirit  they  express,  and  the  heart 
of  a  race  opens  to  those  who  approach  it,  not 
with  distrust  and  suspicion,  but  as  members  of 
the  same  great  family.  There  are  industrious 
farmers  who  see  their  own  fields  clearly,  but 
never  see  the  landscape ;  and  there  are  men 
in  the  East  who  know  the  local  business  con- 
ditions, but  who  never  get  so  much  as  a  glimpse 
of  the  vital  conditions,  the  intellectual  move- 
ments, the  spiritual  stirrings  in  the  souls  of  those 
among  whom  they  have  their  home  but  with 
whom  they  do  not  live.  Those  to  whom  every 
difference  from  the  conditions  and  habits  of  the 
localities  from  which  they  came  is  an  evidence 
of  inferiority  never  understand  an}'  country,  not 


EAST  AND  WEST  87 

even  their  own.  Mr.  James  has  said  shrewdly 
that  a  true  cosmopolitan  must  know  something 
even  of  his  own  country ;  for  this,  he  might 
have  added,  is  the  beginning  of  knowledge  of 
the  world.  The  world  gains  its  interest  largely 
from  variety;  and  the  differences  which  bring 
out  the  range  of  human  resources  and  art  ought 
to  be  welcomed  at  a  time  when  many  influences 
seem  to  be  working  to  produce  an  uninteresting 
monotony  of  dress  and  habit.  The  most  disas- 
trous thing  which  has  happened  in  Japan  is  the 
adoption  of  the  German  cap  !  It  has  blighted 
the  small  boys  and  overshadowed  the  older  ones. 
The  endeavor  of  the  East  has  been  to  identify 
unity  with  uniformity ;  the  problem  of  the  West 
is  to  discover  unity  in  variety.  Between  the 
two  hemispheres  there  are  radical  and  manifold 
differences,  but  there  are  deeper  resemblances. 
The  past  has  emphasized  the  differences  and  kept 
East  and  West  apart ;  the  future  will  emphasize 
the  resemblances  and  bring  them  together.  There 
are  great  obstacles  to  be  overcome ;  obstacles  so 
great  that  without  that  imagination  which  is 


88      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  prime  quality  of  statesmanship  and  of  great 
commercial  enterprise  they  seem  insurmountable  ; 
but  those  whom  time  has  separated  time  can 
reunite.  There  are  no  obstacles  which  right 
feeling,  generous  treatment,  and,  above  all,  un- 
deviating  justice,  cannot  remove. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   STREETS   OF  TOKYO 

To  a  visitor  from  the  Far  West,  Tokyo  pre- 
sents two  possibilities  of  interest  which  are  in- 
exhaustible :  opportunities  of  getting  thoroughly 
lost,  and  an  almost  unlimited  element  of  novelty. 
One  can  easily  lose  himself  in  London,  if  he 
chooses  his  section  of  the  old  town  intelligently; 
but  he  has  ways  of  finding  himself:  Baedeker 
offers  him  a  map  which  may  be  understood  with- 
out a  college  education,  or  he  may  inquire  of  a 
resident  who,  if  he  happens  to  be  a  Cockney, 
will  make  any  kind  of  an  education  a  vain  and 
foolish  thing.  In  the  East  End  of  London  the 
man  who  has  lost  himself  may  not  understand 
the  information  which  is  given  him ;  in  Berlin 
or  Paris,  in  a  similar  plight,  he  faces  the  opposite 
peril ;  it  is  astonishing  how  many  Germans 
and  Frenchmen  do  not  understand  their  own 

89 


90      JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

languages  when  those  languages  are  spoken  by 
non-resident  Americans. 

There  is,  however,  this  difference  between  the 
European  cities  and  Tokyo  :  in  Europe  you  make 
an  effort  to  gain  information,  in  Tokyo  you  do 
not  even  make  the  attempt.  If  you  happen  to 
be  near  a  tram  line,  you  can  take  a  car  and  the 
chance  of  being  carried  to  a  familiar  locality; 
or  if  there  is  a  jinrikisha  on  the  horizon,  you 
can  probably  give  the  quick-witted  'ricksha  man 
the  name  of  some  building  or  section  which  you 
remember. 

But  getting  lost  in  Tokyo  is  not  a  reflection 
on  your  intelligence  or  your  sense  of  direction. 
If  you  drive  to  distant  quarters  of  the  city,  you 
will  often  hear  your  "runner"  inquiring  the 
way ;  indeed,  so  narrow,  numerous,  and  con- 
fusing are  the  little  lanes  in  many  sections  that 
you  wonder  that  even  a  man  whose  business  it 
is  to  find  his  way  should  be  able  to  go  victo- 
riously through  the  maze. 

Tokyo  did  not  begin  as  a  city;  for  many  cen- 
turies the  marshy  ground  on  which  it  stands  was 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  91 

the  seat  of  a  group  of  thirteen  or  fifteen  fishing 
villages,  separated  by  considerable  distances. 
These  villages,  as  distinct  as  the  old  villages 
which  have  merged  into  London,  are  now  indis- 
tinguishable to  the  foreigner,  though  he  soon 
learns  the  names  of  the  principal  wards  into 
which  the  city  is  divided,  and  which,  to  the  resi- 
dent, have  not  only  definite  historical  associa- 
tions but  in  many  cases  distinct  characteristics. 
The  population  is  well  beyond  two  millions,  and 
the  vast  number  of  one-stoiy  shops  and  houses 
cover  a  space  out  of  proportion  to  the  number 
of  people  who  live  or  work  in  them,  and  one 
can  walk  fifteen  miles  in  one  direction  and  ten 
or  twelve  in  the  other  without  getting  aout  of 
town."  There  are  a  few  broad  thoroughfares, 
and  there  are  many  localities  marked  by  temples 
or  parks  or  buildings  which  the  visitor  soon 
learns ;  but  there  are  vast  sections  of  the  city 
which  present  no  salient  features  and  in  which 
one  may  wander  with  a  careless  foot  and  never 
arrive  anywhere.  If  the  visitor  has  formed  that 
most  necessary  habit  to  one  who  wants  to  know 


92      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

places  or  people  in  the  world,  the  habit  of  walk- 
ing, it  will  not  trouble  him  that  he  cannot  read 
a  sign  nor  understand  a  word  that  is  written  or 
spoken.  He  is  in  a  city  which  is  not  only  orderly 
but  friendly;  a  city  across  which  a  woman  can 
ride  in  a  jinrikisha  at  night  unattended  and 
unmolested. 

Tokyo  is  not  beautiful,  though  it  has  locali- 
ties of  great  beauty ;  parks  of  great  age  and  of 
a  mysterious  and  impressive  charm.  Modern 
Japan  is  finding  in  its  ancient  temple  grounds 
parks  which  have  a  quality  distilled  by  time, 
which  no  skill  of  the  landscape  artist  can  over- 
take and  capture  by  the  swift  methods  of  to-day. 
It  is  possible  successfully  to  hasten  mechanical 
processes,  but  not  to  produce  artificially  the 
results  of  the  process  of  growth.  Pine  trees  will 
not  put  on  the  semblance  of  age  at  the  bidding 
of  the  expert ;  antiques  are  successfully  manu- 
factured in  many  places  in  Europe  and  the  East, 
but  large  out-of-door  effects  depend  on  Nature, 
and  Nature  refuses  to  be  hurried.  Tokyo  has 
inherited  breathing-places  which  the  city  could 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  93 

not  create  out  of  hand.  From  these  temple 
grounds  often  rise  those  long  flights  of  ancient 
stone  steps  up  which  uncounted  pilgrims  have 
passed  to  temples  venerable  with  age  and  almost 
hidden  by  the  overhanging  branches  of  trees  as 
old  as  themselves. 

In  no  city  is  there  a  feature  of  the  landscape 
more  interesting  and  impressive  than  the  great 
wall  of  the  palace  grounds  around  which  Tokyo 
has  built  itself  as  if  for  defense ;  a  wall  nearly 
two  miles  and  a  half  long,  overhung  with  wide- 
spreading,  low-reaching  pine  branches  which  are 
reflected  in  a  thousand  elusive  and  changing  lights 
in  the  still  waters  of  the  moat. 

In  these  large  features  Tokyo  has  the  interest 
of  a  novelty  so  radical  that  it  is  doubtful  if  it 
ever  quite  fades  even  from  the  sight  of  the  for- 
eigner who  has  made  the  old  town  his  home. 
Novelty  sometimes  lies  in  degree  of  difference 
from  the  things  to  which  one  is  accustomed ;  in 
Tokyo  it  lies  not  in  degree  but  in  kind.  To  the 
remark  of  an  American  who  knew  Europe  well, 
that  "  there  is  only  one  dinner  in  the  world,  and 


94      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

that  came  from  Paris,"  Charles  Dudley  Warner 
replied,  "If  you  had  been  in  China,  you  would 
know  that  there  are  two  dinners  in  the  world." 
There  is  a  vast  difference  between  a  city  of  solid 
magnificence  like  Budapest,  or  of  brilliant  im- 
mensity like  Paris,  and  a  mushroom  town  on 
the  frontier ;  but  they  belong  to  the  same  type, 
and  the  crude  beginning  may  strike  into  noble 
lines  of  structure  as  time,  the  ripener  of  the  raw 
and  the  civilizer  of  the  primitive,  passes.  But 
between  the  Occidental  and  the  Japanese  city 
there  is  a  fundamental  difference  of  outline  and 
of  detail. 

If  one  is  to  know  cities,  it  is  more  important 
that  he  should  knowr  the  "mean  streets"  than 
the  thoroughfares;  if  he  is  to  know  a  people, 
he  should  familiarize  himself  with  the  details 
of  their  life  quite  as  thoroughly  as  with  their 
form  of  government.  And  the  details  of  life  in 
Tokyo  are  endlessly  interesting.  It  can  be  seen 
to  great  advantage  from  the  jinrikisha,  or  kuruma 
-  a  conveyance  of  modern  origin,  devised  by  an 
American,  but  now  so  characteristic  of  Japan 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  95 

that  most  people  take  it  for  granted  as  a  vehicle 
of  long  descent.  One  will  look  in  vain  for  it, 
however,  in  the  vivid  and  very  human  pictures  of 
old-time  road  life  in  the  Tokaido  prints.  Seated 
between  its  big  wheels  one  has  many  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  walking  without  its  fatigue.  He 
is  wholly  in  the  open  air ;  as  much  so  as  the 
pedestrians  who  make  the  narrow  street  a  place 
of  exciting  dangers  of  collision  and  of  hair-breadth 
escapes.  He  moves  faster  than  they,  but  he  has 
no  carriage-sense  of  separation  from  them;  and 
they  look  upon  him,  not  as  a  superior  person,  but 
as  a  man  in  a  hurry. 

In  old  Tokyo,  or  Yeddo,  as  the  city  was  called 
in  the  days  when  the  Shogun  made  it  his  capital 
and  the  Mikado  was,  so  to  speak,  enshrined  in 
Kyoto,  you  would  have  found  wide  spaces  given 
over  to  the  residences  of  the  great  Daimyos,  or 
feudal  lords,  and  the  work  and  trade  of  the  city 
crowded  into  narrow  quarters.  You  would  have 
met  these  powerful  nobles  riding  through  the 
streets  attended  often  by  a  company  of  two- 
sworded  Samurai  and  followed  by  servants  bear- 


96      JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

ing  their  traveling  equipment.  They  had  come 
perhaps  from  a  long  distance,  stopping  at  famous 
inns  or  tea  houses  by  the  way ;  and  if  you  met 
them  you  waited  respectfully  until  they  had 
passed.  To-day  the  great  noble  is  distinguish- 
able from  the  rest  of  the  population  only  by  the 
practiced  eye,  and  the  Samurai  are  university 
professors,  bankers,  men  of  the  professions  and 
of  affairs. 

In  the  old  days  the  Daimyos  lived  in  ample 
grounds  at  a  distance  from  one  another,  pro- 
tected by  walls  and  gates.  The  great  Red  Gate 
of  the  University  of  Tokyo  was  once  the  entrance 
to  one  of  these  semi-fortified  houses.  To-day 
the  busy  city  has  filled  the  intervening  territory 
between  these  " seats  of  the  mighty"  with  a  vast 
variety  of  little  shops.  So  many  are  the  shops 
that  one  wonders  how  they  are  supported.  If 
every  family  keeps  a  shop,  where  do  the  customers 
come  from  ?  This,  however,  is  in  the  parts  of 
the  city  in  which  the  poorer  people  live,  and  in 
the  majority  of  the  shops  only  articles  in  daily 
use  arc  found.  The  shop  is  often  a  kind  of  by- 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  97 

industry;  the  man  of  the  family  has  some  oc- 
cupation which  supports,  or  largely  supports, 
the  family,  and  the  shop  is  a  venture  of  fortune, 
managed  often  by  the  woman  or  women  of  the 
family.  This  gives  the  shops  a  friendly,  domestic 
atmosphere,  often  more  conducive  to  conversa- 
tion than  to  business ;  indeed,  sales  seem  a  matter 
of  small  interest  to  many  shopkeepers;  and, 
save  in  the  neighborhood  of  foreign  hotels,  Japan 
is  delightfully  free  from  that  pressure  to  buy 
which  becomes  almost  intolerable  in  some  coun- 
tries. Even  in  the  better  class  of  shops  it  is 
difficult  for  a  foreigner  to  discover  the  resources 
of  the  place ;  for  the  most  beautiful  goods  are 
often  out  of  sight  and  are  produced  only  in  re- 
sponse to  requests.  The  courtesy  of  the  attend- 
ants does  not  depend  on  the  purchasing  atti- 
tude ;  the  unproductive  shopper  is  received  as 
politely  as  the  most  profitable  purchaser.  In 
the  old  days  Japanese  ladies  did  not  go  to  the 
shops;  the  shops  wrent  to  them.  The  beautiful 
fabrics  were  displayed  in  the  privacy  of  homes, 
as,  in  Europe,  in  feudal  times,  costly  silks  and 


98      JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

satins  from  the  Far  East  were  spread  before  the 
eyes  of  eager  ladies  in  isolated  castles. 

In  the  district  of  the  small  shops,  business  is 
practically  conducted  out-of-doors ;  the  shop 
opens  directly  on  to  the  street,  and  the  stock  lies 
under  the  eye  of  the  customer.  Indeed,  the 
street  becomes  one  continuous  shop,  separated 
into  divisions  only  by  the  big  signs  which  are 
suspended  from  the  roof  at  the  sides.  Fruit, 
vegetables,  shoes,  toys,  household  utensils,  china, 
curios,  lanterns,  umbrellas,  wooden  things  of 
many  kinds,  are  spread  out  in  great  profusion, 
and  the  street  is  full  of  bustle  and  movement. 
The  effect  is  often  highly  picturesque,  and  the 
color  as  vivid  as  in  the  fruit  shops  in  the  streets 
of  Naples.  In  the  shops  where  cloth  is  sold 
there  is  a  matted  platform  on  which,  in  chilly 
weather,  a  hibachi  is  sending  out  a  heat  which 
is  welcome  even  to  a  hardy  people  accustomed 
to  a  low  temperature.  There  is  a  little  row  of 
sandals  in  front,  and  the  tiny  place  has  an  air  of 
cleanness,  order,  and  thrift. 

The  old-time  fair  survives  in   great  vigor  in 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  99 

Japan,  and  there  are  nights  when  certain  streets 
are  given  over  to  the  display,  in  little  booths  or 
on  the  roadbed,  of  curios,  cups  and  teapots  in  be- 
wildering variety,  artificial  flowers,  toys,  flowers, 
bushes,  and  flowering  plants.  The  street  is 
lighted  by  hundreds  of  lanterns,  and,  to  the 
visitor  at  least,  has  the  unfading  interest  of  the 
old-time  spectacular  East.  The  fair  is  open  by 
six  o'clock,  and  the  entire  street  is  given  over  to 
it  save  a  little  lane  in  the  middle  through  which  a 
jinrikisha  or  kuruma  may  pass  with  many  cries 
of  warning  from  the  kurumaya,  and  there  is  much 
good-natured  getting  out  of  the  way  by  the  crowd 
of  idle  spectators  or  the  practiced  purchasers 
seeking  bargains. 

There  are  also  markets  where  fish,  eggs,  vege- 
tables, and  fruit  are  brought  in  from  the  Bay  and 
the  country.  Fish  is  one  of  the  staple  articles 
of  diet  among  all  classes  of  people,  and  is  found 
not  only  in  great  variety  but  of  an  excellent 
quality.  The  market,  on  a  canal  not  far  from 
the  Bay,  announces  itself  unmistakably  to  the 
visitor,  and  the  carts  and  carriers  that  stream 


100    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

away  from  it  distribute  its  products  to  the  little 
shops  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  One  of  the  most 
familiar  figures  in  the  streets  is  the  seller  of  fish, 
carrying  wooden  pails  at  the  ends  of  the  pole  on 
his  shoulder,  and  announcing  his  approach  by  a 
familiar  cry.  The  vegetable  markets  are  scenes 
of  great  activity,  and  many  familiar  edibles  are 
found  in  them,  with  some  not  so  familiar  —  the 
chief  of  these  being  the  immense  white  radish 
called  the  daikon,  of  a  very  agreeable  taste  but 
of  an  infamous  odor.  As  one  goes  along  country 
roads  he  often  sees  long  rows  of  daikon  hanging 
between  trees  or  from  the  fronts  of  farm  build- 
ings. On  orthodox  Japanese  tables  meats  are 
almost  unknown ;  in  private  houses  where  for- 
eigners are  entertained  in  the  foreign  fashion, 
and  in  hotels,  the  meats  are,  as  a  rule,  notably 
good.  Apples,  pears,  peaches,  strawberries,  are 
reenforced,  so  to  speak,  with  persimmons,  oranges, 
grapes,  figs.  One  of  the  minor  industries  of 
Tokyo  is  the  baking  of  the  sweet  potato,  dear 
to  the  poorer  children,  who  spend  their  coppers 
for  it  as  American  children  spend  their  nickels 


THE  STREETS  OF  TOKYO  101 

for  candy.  There  are  said  to  be  more  than  a 
thousand  potato  ovens  in  the  city.  Good,  whole- 
some food  is  within  reach  of  the  very  poor;  a 
box  of  rice,  pickles,  and  dry  fish,  tastefully  put 
up,  can  be  bought  at  a  railway  station  for  three 
cents. 

There  are  many  characteristic  cries  in  the 
quieter  streets  and  one  hears  them  especially 
at  night  when  traffic  and  travel  have  died  down. 
The  voice  of  the  vender  of  a  preparation  of 
macaroni  of  which  the  people  are  specially  fond 
has  an  appetizing  sound  between  ten  and  eleven, 
when  a  late  hunger  craves  recognition ;  the 
seller  of  tales  and  ballads  offers  a  pleasant  refuge 
for  the  wakeful ;  but  best  of  all  for  the  sleepless 
is  the  note  of  the  masseur's  little  pipe.  You 
have  only  to  open  a  window  or  push  back  a  slide 
and  light,  skillful  hands  will  soon  bring  on  a 
delightful  drowsiness.  Is  there  any  other  city 
in  which  sleep  is  peddled  in  the  streets?  In 
former  times  this  profession  was  confined  to  the 
blind  —  a  form  of  class  privilege  to  which  the 
most  zealous  reformer  could  hardly  take  exception. 


102    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Seen  at  night  from  a  tea  house  on  one  of  the 
hills,  the  million  lights  of  Tokyo  twinkle  like  a 
constellation,  and  as  one  goes  through  the  streets 
he  is  ready  to  accept  the  "Arabian  Nights"  as 
veracious  history.  If  he  has  the  good  luck  to  be 
out  on  a  night  when  a  light  snow  has  fallen,  he 
will  see  an  Oriental  fairyland. 

At  times  he  will  meet  young  men,  in  the  thin- 
nest of  wrhite  garments,  running  at  full  speed 
from  temple  to  temple  through  the  cold  night, 
to  be  met  by  a  shower  of  colder  water  as  they 
arrive,  and  then  to  hasten  on  to  another  cold 
bath  at  the  next  temple.  This  ceremony  of  puri- 
fication was  accomplished  in  more  primitive 
times  without  clothing;  these  fleeing  figures 
are  less  noticeable  under  modern  regulations, 
but  it  is  doubtful  if  they  are  more  comfortable. 

Sometimes,  if  a  gate  or  door  stands  open,  one 
may  get  a  glimpse  of  one  of  those  charming  gardens 
which  enshrine  silence  and  privacy  in  the  crowded 
capital.  In  the  morning  school  children  throng 
the  streets  with  serious  faces  but  with  willing 
hearts,  for  in  Japan  the  schools  have  acquired 


THE   STREETS   OF  TOKYO  103 

the  art  of  being  interesting.  The  usual  dress  of 
the  girls  is  modified  both  for  study  and  for  play ; 
the  boy  is  condemned  to  wear  the  ugly  German  cap. 
Occasionally  one  meets  a  Buddhist  or  Shinto 
priest,  and  sometimes  a  funeral  passes  him  in 
the  street.  Buddhism  has  come  to  be  associated 
with  death  in  the  minds  of  the  people  at  large, 
and  formerly  the  Buddhist  priests  almost  uni- 
formly officiated  at  funerals;  to-day  Shinto 
funerals,  generally  of  important  people,  are  often 
seen.  The  funeral  procession  is  pictorial  and 
often  impressive.  Flower  standards,  lanterns, 
and  great  masses  of  flowers  give  the  moving  line 
of  figures,  many  of  them  in  white,  color  and 
brightness ;  for  in  Japan  death  is  largely  robbed 
of  its  gloomy  associations.  Cages  are  often 
carried  and  opened  during  the  ceremonies,  and 
the  birds  fly  away  singing  —  a  very  beautiful 
piece  of  symbolism.  Japanese  life  is  saturated 
with  symbolism ;  if  one  understood  all  that  lies 
back  of  the  sights  and  sounds  seen  and  heard  in 
the  streets  of  Tokyo,  he  would  uncover  many 
of  the  secrets  of  the  Japanese  spirit. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

VILLAGE   HOMES  AND   PEOPLE 

THERE  is  a  quaint  picture  of  a  little  Japanese 
village,  snow-bound,  by  that  very  human  painter, 
Hiroshige,  that  gives  one  a  sense  of  remoteness 
from  the  rush  of  action,  of  a  kind  of  aside  in  the 
vehement  talk  of  the  world,  very  engaging  to  one 
who  is  entangled  in  the  tumult  of  Tokyo,  or  still 
hears  in  the  distance  the  clang  of  New  York, 
the  "central  roar"  of  London,  or  the  sharp 
staccato  of  Paris.  The  fragility  of  the  little 
group  of  houses  is  emphasized  by  the  weight  of 
snow  which  rests  on  them,  and  the  three  or  four 
people  who  move  about  convey  a  sense  of  the 
noiselessness  with  which  the  business  of  life  is 
being  transacted  that  day  in  those  little  houses 
shut  in  from  the  weather  by  sliding  screens  of 
rice-paper.  The  little  hamlet  is  folded  away 
from  the  world  in  that  "tumultuous  privacy  of 

104 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND   PEOPLE        105 

storm"  which  Emerson  loved  in  Concord,  where 
the  solid  house,  standing  four  square  among  the 
trees,  was  a  visible  symbol  of  New  England  grip 
on  the  material  as  well  as  the  spiritual  realities. 
One  can  imagine  the  quiet  of  the  library  to  which 
the  mind  of  the  Orient  always  found  ready  access, 
and  one  can  rebuild  the  cheerful  fire  before  which 
on  winter  nights  the  solitary  Thoreau  found 
congenial  comradeship  in  the  boys  who  were 
quick  to  recognize  his  intimacy  with  birds  and 
animals  and  his  command  of  the  secrets  of  wood- 
craft. 

In  these  little  Japanese  houses  there  is  no 
master  of  philosophy  sitting  by  a  cheerful  fire, 
but  there  are  men  and  women  who  accept  the 
simplest  conditions  of  living  without  a  murmur, 
and  there  are  children  in  whom  cheerfulness  is 
not  only  inbred  but  inwrought;  who  seem  to 
be  born  under  a  cheerful  star,  and  who  have 
been  trained  to  bear  pain  with  fortitude  and 
to  endure  hardship  with  a  smile.  It  is  not  true 
that  in  Japan  babies  never  cry,  any  more  than 
it  is  true  that  in  Japan  flowers  have  no  perfume ; 


106    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

but  it  is  true  that  crying  is  rarely  heard  in  the 
Japanese  home.  To  the  question  why  babies 
cry  so  little  in  that  countiy  the  significant  answer 
was  made,  "We  teach  our  children  to  be  patient"  ; 
a  form  of  education  rarely  found,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
in  American  homes. 

Those  little  houses  which  Hiroshige  loved  to 
paint  are  so  fragile  that  fire  or  flood  consumes 
them  with  appalling  rapidity ;  but  the  shock  of 
the  earthquake,  which  is  a  daily  occurrence  in 
some  parts  of  the  country,  leaves  them  practically 
uninjured.  One  Japanese  writer  has  described 
his  country  as  "vibrant"  ;  and  when  one  remem- 
bers that  the  daily  average  of  earthquakes  in 
the  Empire  is  four  and  a  half,  the  adjective  takes 
on  scientific  accuracy ;  and  the  ancient  myth 
that  the  islands  rest  on  a  fish  which  sometimes 
tires  of  its  position  seems  a  reasonable  explanation. 

The  foreigner  who  comes  from  cities  piled  high 
with  massive  structures  of  granite  and  marble  is 
struck  at  once  in  Japan  by  the  fragility  of  the 
houses  of  the  people  who  work  with  their  hands, 
and  is  quite  likely  to  rush  to  the  conclusion  that 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND  PEOPLE        107 

as  are  the  houses  so  are  the  people  who  live  in 
them.  We  of  the  West  write  our  histories  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  with  heavy  hands,  and 
imagine  that  bulk  of  material  is  the  register  of 
civilization ;  and  when  a  Hindu  or  Japanese 
comes  our  way  and  shows  no  interest  in  our  sky- 
scrapers, we  are  amazed  at  his  lack  of  apprecia- 
tion, and  do  not  understand  that  he  has  other 
standards  of  civilization. 

In  Hiroshige's  village  the  walls  of  the  houses 
are  translucent,  and  at  night,  seen  from  a  dis- 
tance, they  look  like  a  cluster  of  great  lanterns. 
They  have  only  two  or  three  rooms,  are  quickly 
built  and  easily  repaired,  and  cost  less  than  a 
hundred  dollars.  As  a  rule,  they  have  no  furni- 
ture beyond  a  chest  of  drawers;  the  larder  is 
often  stocked,  but  it  hangs  in  baskets  from  the 
ceiling.  The  beds  are  rolled  up  and  put  out  of 
sight  in  the  daytime.  In  some  houses  there  is  a 
square  opening  in  the  floor  in  one  of  the  rooms, 
in  which  the  fire-box  stands,  and  there  the  food 
is  cooked.  The  laundry  is  done  out-of-doors; 
in  some  localities  a  stream  of  hot  water  flowrs 


108    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

through  the  village.  The  food  is  largely  fish, 
of  which  there  is  great  abundance;  rice,  which 
is  the  principal  product  of  the  country;  and 
vegetables  from  the  little  fields  which  are  part 
of  every  farm  and  surround  every  village.  Fore- 
most among  these  is  the  daikon,  a  long  white 
radish  of  evil  odor  but  not  unpalatable,  and 
greatly  valued  as  a  digestive  corrective  of  a  diet 
which  is  heavily  weighted  with  starch. 

There  is  some  variety  of  color,  but  uniformity 
of  style,  in  the  dress  both  of  men  and  women. 
The  kimonos  of  the  poorer  people  do  not  change 
with  the  fashion  nor  even  with  the  season ;  as 
it  gets  colder,  more  kimonos  are  put  on.  The 
men  who  work  in  the  fields  and  in  the  cities 
look  very  like  the  men  of  the  same  class  who  ap- 
pear in  Shakespeare's  plays ;  they  wear  a  kind 
of  smock,  or  blouse,  generally  blue  in  color, 
with  trousers  of  the  same  material,  which  fit  the 
leg  like  the  old  pantaloon.  It  is  a  more  service- 
able dress  for  work  than  ours,  and  much  more 
artistic.  Straw  sandals,  sometimes  with  a  divided 
foot-covering,  but  often  without  it,  protect  the 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND  PEOPLE        109 

feet ;  and  in  rain  or  mud  a  raised  wooden  sandal 
lifts  the  wearer  above  the  slush.  Apparently; 
babies  are  never  left  at  home  in  the  houses  of 
the  poorer  people,  but  are  carried  on  the  backs 
of  their  mothers  or  of  the  older  children ;  and  a 
good  many  men  share  this  duty. 

On  cold  days  the  hibachi,  or  fire-box,  in  which 
coals  of  charcoal  glow,  is  placed  on  the  floor; 
but  the  house  is  never  warm  in  cold  weather. 
There  is  probably  no  really  warm  Japanese  house 
in  Japan ;  warmth  is  matter  of  clothes,  not  of 
artificial  heating.  This  is  true  only  of  the  houses 
built  in  the  Japanese  fashion ;  houses  built  in 
the  foreign  fashion  are  numerous  among  the 
Japanese  of  fortune,  especially  those  who  enter- 
tain foreigners,  and  many  of  these  are  not  only 
substantial,  but  very  comfortable  in  the  matter  of 
temperature.  But  in  Japanese  houses  of  all 
grades,  and  in  Japanese  hotels,  heat  is  a  matter 
of  choice ;  if  you  wish  to  be  warm  you  must  bring 
the  warmth  with  you. 

Out-of-doors  in  wet  or  snowy  weather  the  man 
of  the  little  farm  or  village  house  wears  a  large 


110    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

straw  hat  which  looks  very  like  a  big  bowl,  and 
a  nondescript  waterproof  garment  of  straw  which 
the  farmers  and  men  of  the  mountains  have  worn 
for  centuries.  Indoors,  on  wet  days,  the  women 
devote  themselves  to  home  industries  —  to  the 
making  of  matting  and  of  rope,  to  spinning  and 
weaving.  The  house  is  kept  with  the  greatest 
neatness;  and  while  the  surroundings  are  some- 
times very  objectionable,  cleanliness  reigns  su- 
preme within.  In  Japan  the  bath  is  a  national 
institution,  and  provision  is  made  for  it  every- 
where at  a  nominal  expense.  Foreigners  who 
bring  the  tradition  of  the  cold  bath  with  them 
and  regard  warm  water  as  a  compromise  with 
effeminacy,  soon  discover  that  the  hot  bath,  which 
is  universal  in  Japan,  seems  specially  adapted 
to  the  climate  and  has  a  kind  of  medicinal  value. 
Those  travelers  from  the  West  who  bring  their 
national  habits  and  traditions  with  them,  and 
refuse  to  follow  the  customs  of  the  country, 
soon  discover  that  the  Japanese  seem  to  possess 
a  superior  knowledge  of  their  own  country ; 
though  a  few  never  reach  this  advanced  stage  of 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND   PEOPLE        111 

enlightenment,  and  decline  to  recognize  differ- 
ences in  climate  which,  if  ignored,  sooner  or 
later  have  their  revenge.  The  thermometer  in 
Japan  needs  interpretation  almost  as  much  as 
the  language  of  the  country;  it  rarely  registers 
a  very  low  temperature,  but  it  often  produces 
the  effect  of  a  veiy  low  temperature.  The 
climate  is,  in  fact,  like  Japan  itself,  a  kind  of 
middle  term  between  the  East  and  the  West ; 
the  extremes  are  not  great,  but  the  dampness 
generates  a  penetrating  chill  in  winter  and  a 
disheartening  humidity  in  summer.  It  is  very 
like  the  English  climate  carried  to  excess.  It  is 
not  an  unwholesome  climate,  though  its  lack 
of  stimulus  compels  foreigners  to  take  a  slower 
pace  than  at  home. 

The  sun  is  the  central  heating  plant  in  Japan, 
and  in  selecting  a  site  for  a  house  exposure  to 
the  sunshine  is  the  determining  factor.  The 
rooms  into  wrhich  the  morning  sun  pours  its  rays 
are  soon  warm,  and  the  genial  temperature  con- 
tinues until  a  cloud  shuts  out  the  light  and  heat. 
The  "poor  man's  furnace,"  which  so  aptly  de- 


112    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

scribes  the  Lungarno  in  Florence  on  which  idlers 
and  beggars  bask,  describes  also  the  sides  of 
the  roads  and  streets  in  Japan  which  lie  within 
the  glow  of  the  sun ;  and  the  difference  between 
sunlight  and  shadow  is  almost  as  marked  as  in 
Italy  on  wintry  days. 

In  the  little  houses  of  the  poor  there  is  at  least 
one  room  which  is  matted ;  this  is  raised  a  foot 
or  more  above  the  level  of  the  street;  and  a  row 
of  wooden  or  straw  sandals  await  those  who  are 
going  out  or  coming  in ;  for  in  the  palace  or  the 
humblest  house  the  foot-covering  worn  in  the 
streets  never  touches  the  soft  and  scrupulously 
clean  matting.  The  floor  in  a  Japanese  house 
is  not  only  a  place  to  walk  on  but  to  sit  on,  and, 
often,  to  use  as  a  table.  The  kettle  is  always 
simmering  on  the  hibachi,  or  fire-box,  and  the 
good  old  song  which  directs  Polly  to  "put  the 
kettle  on"  has  no  meaning  in  a  countiy  in  which 
the  kettle  is  always  in  service.  It  sometimes 
gives  a  touch  of  domesticity  to  the  little  room 
which  serves  as  an  improvised  chapel  for  a  Chris- 
tian service.  The  Japanese  who  returns  from  a 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND   PEOPLE        113 

visit  to  Europe  or  America  will  tell  you  that  the 
first  sound  which  gives  him  a  vivid  sense  of  home 
is  the  clatter  of  the  wooden  sandals  on  the  plat- 
form of  the  station  as  he  leaves  the  train.  He 
will  also  tell  you  that  there  are  sounds  which 
always  recall  his  childhood :  the  sound  of  the 
wooden  screens  which  are  pushed  back  when  the 
house  is  opened  to  let  in  the  morning,  the  soft 
whish  of  the  long  feather  duster  with  which  the 
housemaids  greet  the  day,  and  the  hiss  of  escap- 
ing steam  from  the  kettle. 

In  the  little  village  home  life  is  very  simple 
and  housekeeping  is  reduced  to  first  principles. 
Fresh  fish,  often  eaten  raw  and  regarded  as  a 
delicacy  even  by  the  gourmet,  rice,  beans  in  many 
forms,  and  other  vegetables,  furnish  the  staple 
diet,  with  many  small  cups  of  tea ;  if  the  head 
of  the  family  is  a  laborer  or  a  mechanic,  he  is 
off  early,  for  his  hours  are  long  and  his  wages 
are  meager;  and  the  children  are  soon  noisily 
clattering  along  the  road  to  the  long,  many- 
windowed  schoolhouse  which  is  as  characteristic 
of  the  Japan  of  to-day  as  the  long  flights  of  stone 


114    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

steps  climbing  to  temples  hidden  among  the  trees 
are  of  the  Japan  of  yesterday.  Every  child  old 
enough  to  study  books  has  a  little  bundle  neatly 
wrapped  in  gayly  colored  cloth,  for  bundles  are 
never  carried  in  paper  wrappings  in  Japan.  If 
you  go  into  the  school,  the  children  will  pay  no 
heed  to  }rou  until  their  attention  is  called  to  your 
presence ;  then  they  will  all  rise  and  bow  gravely 
to  you  in  perfect  unison.  The  teachers  will  tell 
you  that  they  delight  in  coming  to  school  and 
need  no  urging  to  be  studious.  In  old  days 
they  would  have  grown  quietly  into  acceptance 
of  the  state  of  life  in  which  they  were  born ;  to- 
day the  more  ambitious  and  capable  may  go  far 
on  the  road  to  education ;  for  the  expense  of 
college  and  even  of  university  education  is  in- 
credibly small  to  one  accustomed  to  the  American 
scale.  Eighty  dollars  a  year  will  carry  the  frugal 
boy  through  college. 

There  may  be  few  books  in  the  little  house, 
although  books  are  cheap ;  but  newspapers  are 
read  eveiywhere  by  all  sorts  of  people,  and  the 
little  village;  is  no  longer  isolated  ;  it  talks  politics 


VILLAGE  HOMES  AND  PEOPLE        115 

and  knows  what  is  going  on  in  Tokyo.  Its  houses 
are  fragile  and  easily  erased  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Of  the  million  people  who  once  lived  in 
Kamakura  there  are  practically  no  visible  traces 
save  a  group  of  temples.  The  houses  have  van- 
ished. But  while  the  houses  of  Pompeii  have 
survived  the  race  that  lived  in  them,  the  Jap- 
anese have  come  to  greatness,  though  the  fragile 
houses  that  sheltered  their  childhood  have  left 
no  trace  behind.  Their  strength  has  been  and 
is  in  their  habit  of  filial  reverence  and  service, 
their  disciplined  capacity  of  endurance,  their 
skill  in  applying  ideas  to  life. 


CHAPTER  IX 

HOLIDAYS   IN   KAMAKURA 

CHRISTMAS  is  beginning  to  find  recognition 
in  Japan,  but  New  Year's  inaugurates  the  great 
popular  holiday.  Its  celebration  is  preceded 
by  an  amount  of  work  which  rivals  the  toil 
involved  in  preparing  for  Christmas  at  home. 
The  business  of  the  country  comes  almost  to  a 
standstill,  while  accounts  are  made  out  and 
settled,  balances  struck,  the  bills  of  the  trades- 
men paid,  and  obligations  of  every  kind  dis- 
charged. The  old  year  washes  its  hands,  so  to 
speak,  before  it  welcomes  the  new  year;  and 
Japan  starts  on  January  first  with  a  clean  page. 
The  exchange  of  presents  is  universal,  as  is  the 
exchange  of  good  wishes  in  the  form  of  cards  of 
various  kinds,  many  of  them  of  delightful  artistic 
quality ;  for  arrears  of  friendship  are  settled  as 

no 


HOLIDAYS  IN  KAMAKURA  117 

punctiliously  as  arrears  of  money.  Friends  who 
have  removed  to  new  localities,  or  have  drifted 
apart,  or  have  lost  touch  with  one  another,  re- 
knit  the  severed  ties,  and  all  Japan  becomes  a 
household,  as  it  was  in  the  early  days. 

The  Post-Office  Department  is  brought  to 
the  verge  of  despair  by  the  unusual  strain  on  its 
resources,  and  the  mails  fall  into  most  incon- 
venient arrears.  The  nation  is  still  in  mourning 
for  the  late  Emperor,  and  many  festivities  are 
shorn  of  their  gayer  aspects ;  but  the  burden  of 
mail  distribution  was  not  perceptibly  lightened ; 
for  the  Japanese,  who  are  punctilious  in  the  ob- 
servance of  the  amenities  of  social  life,  sent  cards 
to  their  friends  explaining  why  the  usual  mes- 
sages of  remembrance  and  good  will  were  not 
dispatched !  The  fact  that  everybody  would 
understand  if  congratulatory  cards  were  not 
winged  for  their  customary  flight  did  not  absolve 
these  polite  people  from  the  customary  courtesies. 

New  Yorkers  who  are  fond  of  recalling  the 
good  old  times  when  a  man  could  know  the  whole 
town,  so  to  speak,  sometimes  lament  a  growth 


118    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

which  has  made  the  pleasant  habit  of  exchanging 
New  Year's  visits  impossible.  Forty  years  ago 
it  was  still  possible  to  meet  men  with  a  look  of 
determination  on  their  faces  and  a  long  list  of 
addresses  in  their  pockets,  making  their  way  by 
carriage  or  car,  or  on  foot,  from  Washington 
Square  to  Forty-second  Street,  bent  on  renew- 
ing old  acquaintances  and  recalling  old-time 
associations.  It  was  a  day  of  much  running  to 
and  fro,  of  too  much  eating  of  attractive  in- 
digestibles,  and  sometimes  of  drinking  too  many 
glasses  of  wine ;  but  it  was  a  pleasant  survival 
of  the  colonial  city  which  began  at  the  Battery 
and  ended  at  the  City  Hall ;  and  there  were  few 
who  followed  the  ancient  custom  who  were  not 
persuaded  that  it  was  a  habit  which  originated 
when  New  York  was  a  Dutch  village. 

But  most  new  things  in  the  Far  West  are  old 
things  in  the  Far  East,  and  the  exchange  of  visits 
between  friends  is  a  custom  of  immemorial  antiq- 
uity in  Japan  ;  and  gentlemen  in  ceremonial  dress, 
attended  by  a  secretary  or  servant,  are  seen  going 
about  town  even  in  a  season  of  national  mourning. 


HOLIDAYS   IN   KAMAKURA  119 

The  Capital  is  shorn  of  its  picturesqueness  of 
decoration  this  year ;  but  in  smaller  communities 
the  festival,  while  less  brilliantly  dressed,  so  to 
speak,  does  not  lack  its  customary  holiday  as- 
pects, and  the  friendliness  of  the  vacation  is  more 
in  evidence  among  small  shopkeepers  and  poorer 
people  than  among  the  well-to-do.  For  New 
Year's  in  Japan  is  a  vacation  even  more  than  a 
holiday.  The  schools  are  closed  for  a  week ;  and 
for  three  days  there  is  cessation  of  business. 
On  the  fourth  day  men  meet  in  the  offices  and 
shops  and  exchange  experiences,  and  say  to  one 
another,  "Now  business  begins  again";  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  business  does  not  take  itself 
very  seriously  for  a  week. 

In  Kamakura  by  the  sea  the  narrow  streets 
are  still,  a  wreek  after  New  Year's  Day,  more 
given  over  to  sociability  than  to  affairs.  As 
one  looks  down  them  they  seem  more  like  lanes 
for  rustic  festivity  than  for  buying  and  selling. 
In  front  of  every  house  or  shop  tall  rods  of  bam- 
boo in  leaf,  or  tall  branches  of  pine,  are  set  up, 
and  the  street  has  the  appearance  of  a  road 


120    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

through  the  woods.  The  decoration  is  symbolic, 
as  most  things  are  in  Japan;  the  pine  standing 
for  vigorous  age,  and  the  bamboo,  with  its  smooth 
joints,  for  uprightness.  Across  the  front  of  the 
shop  or  house  a  rope  or  cord,  the  sign  of  delimi- 
tation or  ownership,  is  stretched,  and  from  this 
slips  of  white  paper  flutter  in  the  wind.  These 
are  the  ancient  symbols  of  purification,  and 
keep  out  evil  spirits.  The  same  symbols  flutter 
on  the  fishing-boats  drawn  up  on  the  beach. 
Over  the  gates  of  entrance  to  little  courts  or  to 
larger  grounds  a  knot  of  rope  twisted  from  right 
to  left  to  express  thankfulness,  a  bit  of  fern,  of 
lobster,  and  an  orange,  are  often  seen ;  the  fern 
signifying  by  its  many  branches  the  fruitfulness 
so  evident  in  the  Japanese  streets  as  well  as  in 
the  well-worked  fields ;  the  lobster  the  hope  that 
one  may  live  to  be  as  bent  by  age;  and  to  the 
initiated  the  message  of  the  orange  reads  "from 
generation  to  generation."  In  Japan  the  family 
is  the  unit  of  society,  and  the  worship  of  ances- 
tors is  a  very  natural  projection  into  the  future 
of  the  passion  of  filial  loyalty  and  devotion  which 


HOLIDAYS  IN  KAMAKURA  121 

has  been  one  of  the  finest  products  of  Japanese 
history  and  one  of  the  deepest  sources  of  the 
strength  of  the  nation. 

Nowhere  else  in  the  world  are  the  children 
more  in  evidence  than  in  Japan.  They  form 
a  little  audience  whenever  the  foreigner  ap- 
pears, and  study  his  dress  and  movements  with 
naive  interest;  as  a  rule  they  are  courteous  and 
ready  to  smile  on  the  slightest  provocation.  It 
is  true  that  in  certain  localities  they  sometimes 
call  after  the  foreigner  with  offensive  epithets 
which  he  does  not  understand,  but  this  is  not 
common,  and  the  expression  of  ill  will  never  goes 
beyond  words.  An  automobile  rushing  through 
the  narrow  streets  of  a  village  scatters  terror  far 
and  wide,  but  it  seems  to  be  a  terror  not  without 
its  pleasure ;  for  the  whole  village  turns  out  en 
masse,  and  the  children,  once  out  of  danger, 
laugh  and  cheer,  and  a  kind  of  camaraderie  of 
the  road  is  established. 

On  New  Year's  Day  every  girl  has  a  new 
kimono,  and  the  little  children  and  babies  are 
fairly  ablaze  with  color;  and  the  narrow  streets 


122    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

become  a  gay  kaleidoscope  of  brilliant  little 
figures.  They  are  full  of  these  fascinating  little 
people,  running  to  and  fro  and  filling  the  air  with 
shouts  and  laughter.  All  Japan  seems  to  give 
itself  over  to  battledore  and  shuttlecock;  every 
child  has  a  new  equipment  for  the  sport,  and  the 
older  children  enter  into  it  as  heartily  as  their 
youngest  kindred.  The  battledores  are  gay  with 
color ;  on  many  of  them  are  raised  figures  gor- 
geously attired.  As  one  goes  about  the  village 
he  feels  that  he  is  present  at  a  family  festival, 
and  everybody  is  kin  to  everybody  else.  There 
is  no  Santa  Glaus  in  Japan ;  but  the  kindly 
spirit  which  presides  over  New  Year's  seems  to 
have  a  pleasant  word  and  a  remembrance  for 
man  and  maid,  for  master  and  servant,  for  those 
who  have  fulfilled  the  symbolism  of  the  lobster 
and  for  those  who  are  keeping  the  promise  of 
the  orange. 

The  images  of  the  gods  are  not  forgotten,  if 
the  figures  in  the  Buddhist  and  Shinto  temples 
may  be  loosely  described  as  gods.  On  every 
altar  there  are  little  gifts  of  rice,  the  chief  source 


HOLIDAYS  IN  KAMAKURA  123 

of  wealth  in  Japan;  and  the  orange,  which  also 
grows  abundantly,  is  not  lacking.  In  earlier 
times  one  of  the  conventional  gifts  was  fish; 
and  to-day  every  gift  between  friends  is  accom- 
panied by  a  little  token  of  folded  paper  with  a 
shred  of  dried  fish.  When  the  sun  shines  in 
Japan,  a  January  day  has  a  genial  warmth; 
and  on  New  Year's  Day  the  sky  was  full  of  light, 
the  air  had  the  kindly  touch  of  April,  and  all  the 
village  world  was  out-of-doors.  The  long,  straight 
road  that  leads  from  the  sea  to  the  ancient  temple 
of  Hachiman,  standing  on  a  hill  at  the  end  of 
the  stately  avenue  of  pines,  was  thronged  with 
people  and  gay  with  children.  The  open  place 
before  the  doors  of  the  temple  was  merry  with 
party-colored  little  figures  and  noisy  with  the 
whir  of  the  sacred  pigeons  which  fly  about  the 
temples  here  as  they  fly  about  St.  Mark's  in 
Venice.  Some  of  the  children  were  led  to  the 
open  places  before  the  altar  and  bowed  low  be- 
fore the  sacred  images,  but  to  the  greater  num- 
ber they  seemed  playgrounds. 

The    only    hilarious    person   who   crossed   our 


124    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

path  in  this  season  of  festivity  was  a  man  whose 
gayety  almost  reconciled  one  to  his  excessive 
indulgence  in  sake.  He  was  overflowing  with 
politeness.  He  explained  that  he  was  a  stone- 
mason who  had  a  new  job  with  a  foreigner,  that 
he  liked  foreigners,  and  was  so  happy  in  his  good 
fortune  that  he  had  gone  too  far  with  the  bowl. 
He  spoke  very  strongly  of  the  historical  interest 
of  Kamakura ;  foreigners,  he  said,  could  not  be 
supposed  to  know  the  thousand  stories  that  made 
almost  every  tree  and  stone  in  the  town  memo- 
rable, but  that  the  Japanese  should  be  ignorant 
of  these  things  filled  him  with  rage.  When  last 
seen  he  was  walking  over  the  long  bridge  to  Enos- 
hima,  voluble  with  local  patriotism.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  in  Japan  when  a  man  loses  control 
of  himself  he  often  overflows  with  good  nature 
and  politeness. 

But  the  Japanese  show  no  lack  of  interest  in 
their  own  history,  and  travel  in  large  numbers 
to  all  parts  of  the  islands  to  visit  the  places  as- 
sociated with  great  persons  or  events.  Kama- 
kura has  been  full  of  strangers  —  many  of  them 


HOLIDAYS  IN  KAMAKURA  125 

university  students  —  during  holiday  time;  and 
it  may  be  suspected  that  for  many  of  them  the 
temples  are  interesting  chiefly  from  an  artistic 
or  historic  point  of  view.  Kamakura  is  a  village 
to-day,  with  many  Japanese  summer  villas;  but 
eight  hundred  years  ago  it  was  the  capital  of  East- 
ern Japan,  with  a  population,  so  the  tradition 
runs,  of  half  the  size  of  that  of  Tokyo.  Here  the 
foundations  of  the  system  of  feudalism,  which 
gave  Japan  a  great  discipline  of  order  and  obe- 
dience, were  laid  by  Yoritomo,  the  first  of  the 
long  line  of  Shoguns,  who  made  the  Emperor 
so  much  a  divine  person  that  he  could  not  exer- 
cise the  functions  of  government,  and  who  con- 
tinued to  relieve  him  of  that  responsibility  until 
the  Restoration  in  1868.  The  town  has  had  a 
dramatic  history;  it  grew  from  a  fishing  village 
into  a  great  capital ;  it  has  been  the  scene  of  as 
many  factional  contests  as  Perugia  or  Verona ; 
it  has  been  sacked  and  burned  and  shaken  by 
earthquakes  and  swept  by  tidal  waves ;  and 
now  it  is  a  beautiful  refuge  from  the  heat  and 
noise  of  the  cities  and  from  the  cold  of  the  ex- 


126    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

treme  north.  Its  story  reminds  one  of  Frank 
Stockton's  reformed  pirate,  who  forsook  murder 
and  pillage  and  spent  his  old  age  knitting  tidies  ! 

But  the  old  age  of  Kamakura  is  an  old  age  of 
achievement,  of  stirring  history,  and  of  a  ripe 
and  beautiful  serenity.  The  last  hour  of  the  old 
year  was  commemorated  by  very  distinct  shocks 
of  earthquake  by  way  of  reminding  the  town  that 
great  age  is  not  exempt  from  agitating  experiences. 

The  framing  of  verdure  in  which  Old  Japan  is 
set  gives  Kamakura  a  background  of  the  depth 
and  richness  found  only  in  veiy  old  countries. 
The  narrow  lanes  on  which  the  houses  stand  are 
walled  by  bamboo  fences,  often  so  thickly  woven 
that  the  dust  cannot  sift  through,  and  securing 
a  privacy  less  oppressive  but  not  less  complete 
than  the  privacy  of  brick  and  stone  in  other 
countries.  Over  these  screens  of  light  wood  the 
pines  lean  in  friendly  familiarity,  and  hedges 
of  evergreen  give  tone  to  the  long  street  of  pale 
bamboo  rods.  Every  temple  is  set  in  an  oasis 
of  green  and  approached  by  long  flights  of  stone 
steps,  now  so  much  a  part  of  the  landscape  that 


HOLIDAYS  IN   KAMAKURA  127 

they  seem  more  like  the  handiwork  of  nature 
than  of  forgotten  builders.  Of  old  Kamakura 
little  remains  save  the  temples,  and  one  may 
begin  turning  the  pages  of  its  ancient  history 
by  passing  under  the  torii  at  the  end  of  the  long, 
bustling  business  street  and  climbing  the  old 
moss-grown  steps  to  the  Temple  of  Kwannon, 
the  Goddess  of  Mercy.  At  the  door  he  will 
wait  a  moment  to  look  over  the  town  at  his  feet, 
half  hidden  even  on  New  Year's  Day  in  fresh 
and  tender  green,  and  at  the  quiet  sea.  The 
colossal  image  stands  in  a  darkness  only  slightly 
dispelled  by  the  dim  light  of  candles  raised  aloft 
by  a  primitive  device  of  pulleys,  in  the  vague 
glow  of  which  one  sees  the  dull  gleam  of  the 
gilded  lacquer  figure  and  a  great  face  vaguely 
eloquent  with  age  and  worship.  On  a  low  hill 
not  far  distant  stands  the  Daibutsu,  or  Great 
Buddha,  probably  the  greatest  work  of  art  in 
Japan.  In  a  country  which  has  produced  such 
a  host  of  delicate  craftsmen,  and  fashioned  so 
many  things  of  exquisite  beauty  on  a  miniature 
scale,  this  figure  emerges  like  the  creation  of  a 


128    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

more  daring  genius.  It  is  not  simply  a  colossal 
figure,  a  mass  of  bronze  towering  above  the  mass 
of  green  in  which  it  stands ;  it  is  a  great  work 
of  art,  not  only  in  scale  but  in  subtle  mastery  of 
surfaces  and  in  harmony  of  proportions.  Mr. 
La  Farge  has  said  that  it  is  not  "a  little  thing 
made  big,  like  our  modern  colossal  statues ;  it 
has  always  been  big,  and  would  be  so  if  reduced 
to  life  size."  Accustomed  as  Western  lovers  of 
art  are  to  associate  great  statues  with  distinction 
of  individuality,  vitality  of  expression,  energy 
poised  on  the  verge  of  action,  as  in  the  impressive 
Moses  in  Rome,  the  indomitable  Colleoni  in 
Venice,  the  marching  Sherman  in  New  York,  the 
powerful  Lincoln  in  Chicago,  the  Great  Buddha 
seems  at  first  not  only  alien  in  feature  but  vague 
and  elusive  in  expression.  One  must  see  the 
figure  many  times  and  learn  to  approach  it  from 
the  Oriental  point  of  view  before  its  sweet  and 
noble  beauty  reveals  itself.  Our  great  statues 
are  of  powerful  men  arrested  for  a  moment  in 
mid-action ;  this  is  the  figure  of  one  who  has 
passed  beyond  action  ;  for  whom  the  experience 


HOLIDAYS   IN  KAMAKURA  129 

of  thought,  of  feeling,  of  doing  —  the  whole 
process  of  living,  in  a  word  —  lies  far  behind  and 
has  become  matter  for  meditation.  Passion  has 
been  subdued,  knowledge  mastered,  the  whole 
nature  harmonized ;  and  out  of  the  storm  of  life 
Buddha  has  emerged  into  a  great  calm  and  is  sunk 
deep  in  brooding  meditation.  A  fathomless  silence 
enfolds  the  great  figure,  and  a  wonderful  sweet- 
ness lies  in  the  tenderly  molded  lips ;  perfect 
knowledge  has  bred  perfect  charity,  infinite 
patience  has  been  born  out  of  pain,  and  in  the  all- 
embracing  comprehension  of  eternity  all  frailties 
and  follies  are  buried  fathoms  below  memory. 

Mr.  Basil  Chamberlain,  who  has  written  about 
Japan  with  breadth  of  knowledge,  has  well  said : 
"He  who  has  time  should  visit  the  Daibutsu  re- 
peatedly ;  for,  like  Niagara,  like  St.  Peter's,  and 
several  other  of  the  greatest  works  of  nature 
and  of  art,  it  fails  to  produce  its  full  effect  on  a 
first  or  even  on  a  second  visit ;  but  the  impression 
it  produces  grows  on  the  beholder  each  time  that 
he  gazes  afresh  at  the  calm,  intellectual,  passion- 
less face,  which  seems  to  concentrate  in  itself 


130    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  whole  philosophy  of  Buddhism  —  the  triumph 
of  mind  over  sense,  of  eternity  over  fleeting  time; 
of  the  enduring  majesty  of  Nirvana  over  the 
trivial  prattle;  the  transitory  agitations,  of  mun- 
dane existence." 

Nothing  is  known  of  the  maker  of  the  Great 
Buddha  save  his  name ;  and  for  him,  as  for 
Shakespeare,  there  is  no  need  of  any  other  record 
save  the  autobiography  of  a  noble  work  of  art 
set  up  in  a  splendid  temple  about  eight  hundred 
years  ago.  Tidal  waves  have  twice  swept  away 
its  shelter,  and  it  stands  now  under  the  open  sky, 
a  group  of  pine  trees  gathered  about  it,  and  in  a 
silence  broken  only  by  the  murmur  of  the  wind 
among  the  pine  needles.  The  eyes,  which  are 
of  pure  gold,  are  looking  down  and  nearly  closed ; 
they  have  seen  the  whole  spectacle  of  life,  and 
nothing  remains  save  the  illumination  of  thought. 
The  figure  rests  in  the  repose  of  eternity,  but  it 
is  full  of  power ;  the  folds  of  the  robe  it  wears 
have  the  quality  of  the  Greek  draperies  —  they 
are  without  weight.  One  has  the  fooling  that 
the  Groat  Buddha  could  rise  and  go  down  the 


HOLIDAYS   IN   KAMAKURA  131 

ways  of  the  world,  if  he  chose ;  but  all  that  is 
long  passed.  There  is  a  wooded  hill  not  far 
away  from  which  one  looks  down  on  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  the  Buddha,  rising  out  of  a  sea 
of  foliage  like  some  great  figure  of  a  prehistoric 
age  surviving  a  submerged  world.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  hill  Fujiyama  shines  between  the 
branches  of  the  pines.  "The  trees  rustle  and 
wave  behind  it,  and  the  light  dances  up  and 
down  the  green  boughs  with  the  wind ;  it  must 
move  —  but  there  is  no  change,  and  it  shall  sit 
forever."  In  its  presence  irritation,  anger,  fear, 
have  no  place ;  it  is  the  incarnation  of  the  peace 
beyond  death.  The  birds  fly  about  it  and  settle 
on  its  vast  shoulders  undisturbed. 

Kamakura  is  not  overshadowed  by  its  age 
nor  subdued  in  spirit  by  the  brooding  figure 
among  the  trees ;  its  streets  are  full  of  the  sounds 
of  life,  and  in  holiday  time  it  is  resonant  with 
the  merry  cries  of  children  and,  in  spite  of  earth- 
quakes, one  finds  it  a  happy  setting  for  a  new 
act  in  the  drama  of  life  which  has  been  so  long 
played  in  its  streets  and  homes  and  temples. 


CHAPTER  X 

KYOTO,   THE   ANCIENT   CAPITAL 

So  far  as  the  Emperor  is  concerned,  Tokyo 
is  a  modern  capital  only  forty-five  years  old, 
while  Kyoto  holds  the  Imperial  tradition  of 
nine  hundred  years.  Toward  the  old  palace 
the  eyes  of  all  Japan  will  turn  when  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-second  Emperor  is  crowned 
with  ancient  ceremonies.  To  Kyoto  armies  of 
pilgrims  have  journeyed  for  centuries  past  from 
all  parts  of  the  Empire ;  for  Kyoto,  with  more 
than  a  thousand  temples,  is  the  Rome  of  Japan. 
It  is  also  a  city  of  arts  and  crafts  where  from 
time  immemorial  workmen  have  been  artists 
as  well.  It  has  its  Imperial  University,  its 
Doshisha  (the  growing  Christian  university), 
its  schools  of  many  kinds,  its  interesting  mu- 
seums, its  beautiful  and  fascinating  shops. 

The  city  became  the  Imperial  capital  at  the 

132 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL      133 

beginning  of  the  tenth  century.  For  nearly  a 
hundred  years  the  Court  had  been  at  Nara, 
distant  an  hour  and  a  half  by  rail  to-day.  The 
influence  of  China  and  Korea  during  that  period 
had  deeply  influenced  Japanese  life  and  art. 
It  was  an  age  of  temple-building,  not  unlike  the 
age  of  cathedral-building  which  had  begun  in 
Europe,  and  many  beautiful  structures  rose  in 
grounds  that  were  later  to  become  great  parks. 
The  Japanese  are  masters  of  live  wood,  to  recall 
a  phrase  which  was  applied  to  sculptors  in  Flor- 
ence in  Dante's  time,  and  both  in  structure  and 
in  decoration  wrought  marvelous  effects  with  a 
material  which  we  regard  as  perishable.  An 
American  was  once  admiring  a  Buddhist  temple 
and  lamenting  that  it  was  built  of  such  fragile 
material.  "By  the  way,"  he  said  to  the  Japanese 
friend  who  was  with  him,  "how  old  is  this 
temple?"  "Over  twelve  hundred  years,"  was 
the  reassuring  reply. 

Images  of  Buddha  in  great  numbers  were  cast 
in  bronze  and  other  metals,  and  many  schools 
were  founded.  It  was  an  Asiatic  Renaissance 


134    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

which  gave  Japan  the  impulse  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced and  varied  culture  of  the  Continent ; 
it  softened  the  rigorous  ideals  and  habits  of  the 
people,  and  in  the  end  brought  a  relaxation  of 
energy  and  activity  that  was  Asian  rather  than 
Japanese.  "We  do  not  hear  of  the  soldiers  of 
that  time,"  writes  Dr.  Nitobe;  "we  hear  only  of 
monks  and  nobles.  Instead  of  war-drums  stirring 
us  to  imitate  the  actions  of  the  tiger,  were  heard 
the  tranquil  tones  of  temple  bells.  In  place  of 
steel  armor  and  weapons  rustled  Chinese  silks 
and  brocades.  Literature,  though  it  retained 
some  signs  of  rugged,  pristine  vigor,  began  to 
show  signs  of  feminine  fastidiousness.  Priests 
and  nobles  vied  in  writing  love  poems  and  ama- 
tory epistles.  It  was  indeed  a  golden  age  of 
poetry,  and  if  it  lacked  manly  vigor  it  certainly 
showed  elegant  finesse,  both  in  sentiment  and 
diction." 

Coincident  with  this  softening  of  manners  and 
devotion  to  the  arts  there  was  a  decline  of  vigor 
of  administration  ;  the  grasp  of  the  functions  of 
government  by  the  Emperor  relaxed,  and  the 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL      135 

direction  of  public  affairs  fell  more  and  more 
into  the  hands  of  the  ambitious  and  able  Fuji- 
wara  family,  who,  with  great  political  skill,  in- 
vested the  Emperor  with  such  divinity  that  he 
was  lifted  high  above  political  tasks  and  duties. 
Whether  the  Emperors  accepted  divine  honors 
in  place  of  earthly  power  gladly  or  by  force  of 
circumstances,  no  one  knows ;  but  the  device 
was  marvelously  skillful  and  was  more  or  less 
successful  for  a  thousand  years. 

The  vigorous  temperament  of  the  Japanese 
finally  reacted  against  the  refined  but  demoral- 
izing lassitude  of  the  Nara  period,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  ninth  century,  and  under  the  direction  of 
a  forceful  Emperor,  the  Court  was  removed  to 
Kyoto  and  the  hand  of  a  rigorous  ruler  was  felt 
in  many  directions. 

This  reassertion  of  Imperial  authority  was 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  death  of  the  Emperor, 
and  another  and  more  prolonged  period  of  declin- 
ing moral  and  political  vitality  set  in  and  lasted 
until  the  first  Shogun,  Yoritomo,  assumed  the 
Imperial  functions  while  scrupulously  observing 


136    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  forms  of  deference  to  the  Emperor,  made 
Kamakura  the  real  capital  of  Japan,  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  feudal  system  which  was 
to  last  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 

During  this  long  period  Kyoto  was  the  home 
of  the  Emperor  and  the  center  of  the  artistic 
activity  of  the  Empire.  It  was  also  a  city  of 
luxury  and  pleasure,  and  the  tea  houses  which 
line  the  river  and,  at  night,  give  it  the  air  of  a 
festival  continue  the  tradition  of  easy  morality 
created  long  ago  —  a  tradition  which  it  shares 
with  Paris  and  Vienna.  Kyoto  has  been  the 
Mecca  of  hosts  of  pilgrims  for  hundreds  of  years, 
but  they  seek  various  shrines  and  worship  gods 
as  different  as  Aphrodite  and  Dionysus.  It  is 
as  easy  to  understand  the  intense  local  devo- 
tion of  the  half  million  people  who  live  in  Kyoto 
as  it  is  to  understand  the  love  of  the  Parisians 
for  a  city  which  has  not  only  a  civic  consciousness 
but  the  architectural  unity  of  a  city,  the  expres- 
sion of  a  civic  ideal  which  has  created  an  organic 
unity  ;  most  cities  in  this  country  are  aggregations 
of  houses. 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT   CAPITAL      137 

Kyoto  has  a  long  history ;  traditions  of  re- 
ligion, government,  and  art,  which  are  the  heri- 
tage of  every  citizen,  make  it  the  most  Japanese 
of  cities.  Its  narrow  streets,  overhung  in  sum- 
mer with  awnings,  its  brilliant  shops,  its  palaces 
and  temples,  give  it  unfailing  interest  for  the 
visitor  from  the  West,  wrho  finds  himself  fas- 
cinated by  its  contemporary  life  and  under  the 
spell  of  its  rich  and  stirring  history.  It  lies  in 
an  amphitheater  of  encircling  hills,  on  which  in 
the  season  there  is  a  blaze  of  color,  but  from  which 
in  winter  icy  winds  sweep  the  great  open  places 
of  the  city.  Two  rivers  flow  through  the  plain 
on  which  Kyoto  stands,  and  bring  the  freshness 
and  vitality  which  running  streams  always  sug- 
gest to  the  imagination  if  not  to  the  senses.  If 
pleasure  has  built  its  palaces  along  the  river, 
religion  has  taken  the  hills  for  its  own,  and  tem- 
ples, shrines,  and  monasteries  with  ancient  and 
tranquilly  beautiful  gardens  give  the  old  capital 
an  air  of  deep  repose.  The  silence  of  the  temples 
and  grounds  seems  to  be  distilled  from  their 
antiquity,  so  potent  is  it  and  so  protecting ;  for 


138    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  most  delicate  and  beautiful  things  of  the  spirit 
are  blighted  by  noise  and  perish  if  they  fail  of 
privacy  and  quietness.  Temple  gardens  are  not 
gay  with  flowers,  though  the  lilies  lie  tranquil 
on  the  surface  of  the  little  lakes  approached  by 
winding  paths  and  crossed  by  bridges  which  in- 
vest the  familiar  arch  with  a  new  picturesque- 
ness.  The  massing  of  foliage  that  obliterates 
the  signs  of  limitation  and  boundary,  the  vistas 
that  convey  the  sense  of  space  and  relation,  the 
skillful  use  of  line  and  living  thing,  of  springing 
bridges,  solid  ground,  and  glancing  water,  are 
expressions  of  a  love  of  nature  as  deep  as  the 
craftsmanship  is  subtle  and  dexterous.  There 
is  none  of  the  "smart"  brightness  of  the  new 
garden ;  none  of  the  riotous  splendor  of  color 
of  some  English  and  French  gardens ;  none  of 
the  shadowy  seclusion  of  Italian  gardens  which 
diffuse  and  defeat  the  sunlight  as  the  English 
garden  welcomes  it.  There  is,  instead,  the  art 
that  makes  small  spaces  significant  of  the  breadth 
of  nature,  and  evokes  out  of  age  not  decay  but 
ripeness  and  the  sense  of  the  patient  continuance 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT   CAPITAL      139 

of  beautiful  things.  In  the  gardens  of  some  of 
the  smaller  temples  and  monasteries  life  seems 
to  be  set  forever  in  the  key  of  meditation,  and  the 
tumult  of  activity  which  fills  the  West  seems  like 
a  wanton  intrusion  on  the  eternal  silence  in  which 
the  soul  finds  itself. 

In  the  group  of  temples  which  look  down  upon 
the  city  from  the  hillside  none  is  more  character- 
istic and  beautiful  than  the  Temple  of  Chion-in, 
founded  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury by  a  priest  famous  for  his  absorption  in 
prayer  to  Amida,  in  whose  boundless  mercy 
there  is  a  sure  hope  of  salvation.  The  main 
building  in  this  group  is  a  fine  example  of  classical 
Buddhist  architecture.  It  rises  above  a  succes- 
sion of  terraces,  is  approached  by  long  flights  of 
stone  steps,  and  is  framed  in  a  great  mass  of 
foliage  —  lofty  cryptomerias,  bending  pines,  and 
maples  that  blend  in  a  blaze  of  color  in  autumn. 

Climbing  the  steps  up  which  multitudes  of 
pilgrims  have  made  their  way  for  many  genera- 
tions, passing  the  imposing  gateway  and  the 
little  pond  and  a  statue  of  Kwannon,  the  familiar 


140    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

and  beloved  goddess  of  Mercy,  one  reaches  at 
last  the  broad  esplanade  on  which  the  temple 
stands.  Farther  up  the  hills,  in  its  massive  belfry, 
hangs  one  of  the  great  bells  whose  deep  tones, 
mellow  and  resonant,  seem  to  be  always  floating 
over  the  rice-fields  and  carry  the  thought  of  an- 
cient and  spiritual  things  into  the  heart  of  the 
busy  city. 

Entering  the  Buddha  Hall,  on  the  left,  through 
a  porch  with  elaborate  carvings  of  storks,  ele- 
phants' heads,  flowers,  and  fantastic  animals 
never  seen  on  land  or  sea,  past  the  great  bronze 
water  basins  shaped  like  the  lotus  and  the  bronze 
incense  burner,  one  comes  into  a  nobly  propor- 
tioned room  dominated  by  a  gilded  figure  of 
Amida  sitting  on  a  mass  of  lotus  leaves  and  liter- 
ally enshrined  in  golden  adornments  that  hang 
from  the  ceiling  in  splendid  profusion.  At  the 
side  of  the  shrine  a  priest  taps  a  drum  with  a 
steady,  monotonous  hand  and  repeats  the  sacred 
name  in  an  unchanging  voice.  Some  one  has 
said  that  there  is  nothing  in  a  Buddhist  temple 
but  a  drum,  and  that  the  drum  is  empty  !  It 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT   CAPITAL      141 

is  easy,  however,  to  understand  the  detachment 
of  mind  induced  by  this  rhythmical  repetition  of 
sound  in  the  pious  devotee,  and  its  hypnotic 
effect  over  the  formal  worshiper  to  whom  the 
temple  is  little  more  than  a  place  of  traditional 
resort. 

But  the  real  center  of  interest  is  the  main 
temple,  on  the  right.  The  cool  winter  sunlight 
lies  brightly  on  the  open  court  in  which  the 
water  from  beautiful  bronze  lotus-flower  foun- 
tains is  gently  falling.  The  great  porch  bears 
on  the  angles  of  its  roofs  those  terrifying  demons 
which  in  Japanese  shrines  are  of  the  kindred  of 
the  demons  that  leer  over  Paris  from  the  heights 
of  Notre  Dame ;  Buddhas  of  gentle  mien  stand  at 
the  corners,  with  bronze  wind  bells. 

To  pass  from  the  low-toned  world  in  the  high 
light  of  a  winter's  morning  into  this  temple  is 
to  come  into  a  golden  immensity,  a  shining  mag- 
nificence. No  trace  of  tawdriness  strikes  a  false 
note  in  a  room  whose  vast  dimensions  soften  the 
golden  spaces  and  blend  them  in  a  tone  that 
transmutes  what  might  be  barbaric  magnificence 


142    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

into  a  rich  and  mellow  splendor.  The  effect  of 
space  between  the  pavement  and  the  roof,  which 
is  supported  by  golden  pillars  of  immense  girth, 
is  reproduced  nowhere  but  at  St.  Mark's  in 
Venice,  and  there  the  stretches  of  mosaic  sub- 
due the  splendor  which  in  this  temple  is  un- 
clouded. In  all  this  golden  magnificence  the 
Japanese  restraint  is  apparent ;  between  the 
austerely  simple  exterior  and  the  glory  of  the 
interior  there  is  no  dissonance ;  for  simplicity 
may  express  itself  in  gold  as  truly  as  in  wood. 
The  great  altar  is  the  center  of  this  wonderful 
decoration ;  around  the  dais  real  dwarfed  pine 
trees  grow  in  great  vases,  and  immense  lotus 
blooms  of  gilded  metal  are  grouped. 

A  covered  passage  leads  to  another  building 
in  which  examples  of  the  famous  seventeenth- 
century  artist  of  the  Kano  school  are  treasured. 
Many  of  the  painted  slides  have  been  blurred 
by  time ;  golden  backgrounds  have  become  dull 
and  figures  and  landscapes  have  grown  dim ; 
but  much  remains  to  interest  the  lover  of  Japa- 
nese painting.  The  blossoming  plum  branches, 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL      143 

the  graceful  white  storks,  the  white  heron  rising 
on  outspread  wings,  bear  witness  to  the  delicate 
skill  and  feeling  of  the  Kano  school ;  and  one  is 
quite  ready  to  believe  that  the  elusive  outlines 
of  a  sparrow  on  one  of  the  panels  are  only  the 
shadow  of  a  bird  that  was  painted  with  such 
fidelity  that  when  the  last  stroke  was  laid  on 
the  wood  it  flew  away.  In  another  room  there 
is  a  cat  from  the  same  hand  of  such  startling 
verisimilitude  that  real  cats  arch  their  backs 
when  they  pass  it !  As  one  passes  through  the 
gallery  or  outer  rooms  he  sees,  through  the  spaces 
between  the  slides  that  have  been  pushed  back, 
charming  garden  views ;  and  from  a  terrace  a 
little  higher  up  the  hill,  one  comes  suddenly  on 
a  view  of  the  city  spread  over  the  plain,  and  the 
rivers  which  flow  together  and  the  circle  of  hills 
that  enfold  it. 

The  pilgrim,  whether  secular  or  religious,  must 
choose  his  temples  if  he  is  to  see  Kyoto  in  the 
richness  of  its  history  and  life,  but  he  must  not 
omit  the  Kiyumizu-dera,  a  venerable  and  fa- 
mous shrine  which  hangs,  by  the  help  of  massive 


144    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

piles  and  scaffolding,  on  the  steep  hillside  on  a 
series  of  terraces,  and  faces  the  gorge  with  a 
great  balcony.  The  temple  is  not  beautiful,  but 
is  wonderfully  framed,  and  might  well  be  the 
seat  of  the  goddess  of  Nature,  so  deep  seem  its 
attachments  to  the  landscape,  so  interblended 
with  branching  trees  is  it,  and  so  enchanting  are 
the  vistas  which  open  from  its  great  balcony. 
One  has  the  sense  of  being  aboye  the  world  and 
yet  intimately  a  part  of  it  as  he  looks  down  into 
masses  of  foliage  that  seem  to  invite  him  to  leap 
into  their  cool  recesses.  This  suggestion  became 
so  potent  at  one  time  that  the  frequency  of  sui- 
cides led  to  the  closing  of  the  balcony. 

It  has  long  been  the  custom  of  the  Emperor 
of  Japan  to  announce  each  year  a  subject  or 
subjects  for  poetic  competition.  Two  years  ago 
more  than  thirty  thousand  poems  were  sub- 
mitted dealing  with  the  Crane  and  the  Pine, 
two  symbols  dear  to  the  Japanese  imagination. 
Not  long  ago  the  present  Emperor  selected  "The 
Shrine  Among  the  Cryptomeria"  as  the  theme 
for  poetic  activity,  and  this  woodland  temple, 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT   CAPITAL      145 

rising  among  the  tree  tops,  may  well  have  sug- 
gested this  charming  theme.  Time  and  worship 
have  been  working  together  for  centuries  to  en- 
viron this  temple  with  paths  that  run  away  from 
the  world  into  quiet  places,  with  memorials, 
lesser  shrines  and  pagodas.  It  is  a  little  world 
in  itself  built  by  hands  that  served  nature  as  joy- 
fully as  they  served  religion. 

There  are  splendid  temples  of  the  Hongwanji 
sect  of  Buddhists  which  are  thronged  with  visi- 
tors and  speak  of  present  faith  rather  than  of 
tradition  and  history,  and  there  are  more  ob- 
scure shrines  approached  through  long,  impressive 
avenues  and  surrounded  by  gardens  steeped  in 
"silence  and  slow  time."  One  of  these  is  Kuro- 
dani,  which  seems  to  watch  over  the  city,  enfolded 
itself  in  ancient  quietness.  Flowering  trees  over- 
shadow the  garden  paths,  a  deep-toned  bell  stirs 
the  silence  from  time  to  time  like  a  stone  dropped 
in  a  pool,  but  the  waves  of  sound  sink  into  a 
deep  stillness.  Curious  pine  trees  stand  near 
the  temple,  one  of  which  has  been  trained  on  a 
trellis  to  take  the  shape  of  an  open  fan  ;  a  famous 


146    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

warrior  hung  here  his  sword  and  armor  when  he 
turned  from  strife  to  peace  and  became  a  monk. 
Seven  hundred  years  ago,  the  story  runs,  this 
redoubtable  soldier  seized  an  enemy,  whose 
rank  he  demanded  to  know.  The  request  was 
denied,  and  the  veteran  fighter  tore  off  the  hel- 
met of  his  foe,  to  find  that  it  concealed  the  boyish 
face  of  the  son  of  a  former  commander.  He 
sheathed  his  sword  and  begged  the  boy  to  go. 
But  the  boy  refused,  and  insisted,  as  a  matter 
of  honor,  on  being  killed.  Finding  his  entreaties 
vain  and  hearing  others  approaching  who  had 
no  scruples,  the  older  man  cried  out,  "If  thou 
art  overtaken,  thou  mayest  fall  by  a  more  ignoble 
hand  than  mine.  0  thou  Infinite  One,  receive 
his  soul,"  and  dispatched  the  boy,  as  he  was  bound 
to  do  by  the  fighting  code  of  his  time.  At  the 
end  of  the  war  the  remorseful  warrior  withdrew 
to  the  Kurodani  Temple  and  became  a  monk. 
No  lovelier  place  for  peace  and  penitence  could 
be  found  than  the  garden  of  this  temple. 

Many  of  the  temples  stand  among  trees  on 
the   hillsides ;    the   Imperial   Palace,   surrounded 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL      147 

by  spacious  gardens  and  inclosed  by  plastered 
walls  with  upright  beams,  is  in  the  northern 
section  of  the  city,  not  far  from  the  river.  In  a 
sense,  as  in  Tokyo,  the  city  seems  an  adjunct 
to  the  larger  spaces  surrendered  to  the  Palace. 
Many  of  the  temples  are  approached  by  wide 
avenues  with  stone  and  bronze  lanterns,  with 
striking  torii,  or  gateways;  great  trees  guard 
the  seclusion  of  the  sacred  places.  But  one  may 
go  to  the  Palace  quarter  by  tram  car,  although 
for  a  thousand  years  the  Sovereign  was  a  semi- 
divine  person  and  lived  in  deep  seclusion.  One 
of  the  most  attractive  features  of  Japan  is  the 
absence  of  those  oppressive  piles  of  masonry 
which  exhibit  the  wealth  of  the  West  but  seem 
to  bury  its  soul  under  a  crushing  materialism. 
In  Japan,  on  the  other  hand,  the  houses  of  ruler 
and  of  people  seem  very  fragile ;  they  are  low 
in  structure  and  built  largely  of  wood,  and  the 
towns  are  often  swept  by  devastating  fires.  The 
resources  of  the  nation  have  been  in  the  character 
and  spirit  of  its  people  rather  than  in  iron  and 
stone.  Japan  is  not  unprotected  by  the  devices 


148    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

of  modern  science,  but  its  strength  still  lies  in 
the  intense  patriotism,  the  daring  courage,  and 
the  power  of  intelligence  which  is  brought  to 
bear  on  all  the  problems  of  life.  The  nation  has 
an  immense  inward  capital,  and  those  who  see 
in  her  great  possibilities  of  development  will 
hope  that  in  applying  the  science  of  the  West 
to  the  practical  needs  of  the  country  she  will 
escape  the  confusion  of  the  values  of  civilization 
which  bewilders  and  misleads  the  West. 

These  impressions  are  deepened  as  one  goes 
through  the  Palace  in  which  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-second  Emperor  will  presently  be 
crowned.  In  line  and  structure  the  building  is 
severely  simple.  In  summer  the  wide  halls  and 
rooms,  devoid  of  furnishings  and  with  glimpses 
of  quiet  woods  and  enchanting  gardens,  suggest 
a  delightful  coolness;  but  on  a  bright  wintry 
day  the  Spartan  frugality  of  decoration  drives 
one  back  on  the  traditions  which  invest  royalty 
in  Japan  with  a  dignity  which  external  splendor 
is  powerless  to  convey. 

The  hall  in  which  the  Emperor  will  be  crowned 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT   CAPITAL      149 

shows  great  roof-beams,  and  is  bare  of  furnishings 
save  the  throne  in  the  center,  and  that  is  in 
striking  contrast  to  the  elaborate  and  gorgeously 
colored  throne,  with  its  entanglements  of  dragons, 
on  which  the  Emperors  of  the  Ming  dynasty  in 
China  sat  for  generations.  It  is  a  simple  but 
beautifully  inlaid  chair  covered  with  white  silk 
draperies.  On  either  side  are  lacquered  stands 
on  which  are  laid  the  ancient  symbols  of  Imperial 
descent  and  authority  —  the  sword  and  jewel ; 
the  mirror  is  kept  in  the  Imperial  shrine  at  Ise. 

The  open  court  on  which  this  room  opens  be- 
comes part  of  the  Palace  in  great  ceremonials. 
The  doors  which  shut  the  hall  from  the  court  are 
lifted,  and  on  the  eighteen  steps  which  lead  down 
to  the  court  formerly  stood  the  eighteen  grades 
into  which  the  officials  of  the  Government  were 
divided ;  while  in  the  court,  rank  on  rank,  were 
those  whose  nobility  or  position  gave  them  the 
right  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor. 

When  in  court  and  hall,  in  ancient  costumes 
and  with  ancient  ceremony,  the  Emperor  shall 
be  enthroned  and  the  Imperial  insignia  placed  in 


150    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

his  keeping,  the  fortunate  spectator  will  see  the 
history  of  the  Empire  pictorially  illustrated  in 
the  splendid  spectacle.  There  are  other  palaces 
in  Kyoto  much  more  splendid ;  the  Nijo  Palace, 
built  three  hundred  years  ago  by  leyasu,  one  of 
the  most  powerful  of  the  Shoguns,  is  a  fortress 
without  and  a  golden  dream  of  fairyland  within, 
with  an  audience  hall  of  magnificent  proportions 
and  design ;  but  the  Summer  Palace,  in  which  the 
Emperor  sometimes  lives,  while  not  without  in- 
terest to  lovers  of  art,  is  a  very  simple  structure, 
with  a  garden  of  a  highly  conventional  type. 

Art  and  pleasure  are  popular  interests  in 
Kyoto,  and  temples,  museums,  shops,  and  tea 
houses  are  on  a  scale  of  profusion  and  of  beauty 
which  suggests  that  the  old  city  is,  in  these  re- 
spects, still  the  capital  of  the  Empire.  Its  popu- 
lar festivals  are  prodigal  of  color  and  gayety, 
and  dancing  is  seen  in  the  time  of  the  cherry 
bloom  with  elaborate  and  permanent  staging. 
The  work  of  the  craftsmen  in  metal,  ceramics,  on 
delicate  fabrics,  on  hand  looms,  has  apparently 
lost  none  of  the  conscientious  delicacy  and  ex- 


KYOTO,   THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL      151 

quisite  integrity  of  the  days  when  time  had  no 
commercial  value  in  Japan.  He  who  sees  only 
beauty  and  pleasure  in  Kyoto,  companies  of  pil- 
grims wandering  from  temple  to  temple,  and  an 
air  of  easy-going  festivity,  will  repeat  the  blunder 
of  the  traveler  who  thinks  that  Paris  is  given 
over  to  gayety  until  he  discovers  that  it  is  the 
most  industrious  city  in  the  world.  He  should 
visit  the  Imperial  University,  the  Doshisha,  the 
well-housed  and  admirable  schools,  the  museum 
and  hospital,  the  shops  and  workrooms  in  which 
the  traditions  of  ancient  skill  are  passed  on  to 
the  toilers  of  to-day.  Those  who  think  of  the 
Orient  as  the  home  of  gilded  idleness  and  of  the 
West  as  the  home  of  tireless  industry  are 
confusing  work  with  noise  and  productiveness 
with  activity.  In  patient  and  uncomplaining 
industry  China  and  Japan  have  nothing  to  learn 
from  the  West. 


CHAPTER  XI 

NIKKO,  THE  "SUNNY  SPLENDOR" 

IN  the  old  days  pilgrims  in  Japan  went  to  Ise  as 
pilgrims  in  England  once  went  to  the  shrine  of 
Thomas  a  Becket  in  Canterbury,,  as  the  more 
adventurous  went  to  the  Holy  Land,  as  to-day 
the  pious  Mohammedan  goes  to  Mecca.  To  the 
Japanese  no  place  is  so  sacred  except  the  Great 
Shrine  at  Izumo,  which  is  regarded  as  the  oldest 
existing  shrine  of  the  Shinto  faith.  There  the 
kami,  or  gods  who  watch  over  Japan,  have  their 
special  abode  and  are  most  effectively  approached, 
and  thither  streams  of  pilgrims  still  flow  from  all 
parts  of  the  Empire.  The  two  shrines  are  con- 
secrated to  the  Sun  Goddess,  the  divine  ancestress 
of  the  Emperor ;  they  preserve  the  severe  simplic- 
ity of  pure  Shinto  architecture,  and  the  ancient 
ceremonials  are  maintained  in  their  primitive 
integrity.  These  shrines  are  not  only  the  center 
of  the  original  Japanese  religious  cult,  they  are 


NIKKO,   THE   " SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    153 

also  the  symbols  of  the  Mikado  tradition  which 
runs  through  Japanese  history  and  unifies  it  and 
is  the  pillar  around  which  all  the  institutions  of 
the  country  have  been  built.  In  a  real  sense  the 
Emperor  has  been  not  only  the  semi-divine  ruler 
of  Japan  but  the  head  of  the  family  of  which  all 
Japanese  are  members.  His  authority  has  been 
supreme ;  there  have  been  revolts  headed  by 
rival  members  of  the  Imperial  family,  but  there 
has  never  been  a  popular  revolt  against  an  Em- 
peror; and  in  the  long  history  of  a  dynasty  so 
ancient  that  all  other  dynasties  are  parvenus  com- 
pared with  it,  the  supreme  and  final  authority 
of  the  Emperor  has  never  been  questioned. 
During  the  thousand  years  of  administrative  su- 
premacy of  the  Shoguns  the  Government  was 
carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  and  the 
most  powerful  Shogun  never  ventured  to  act 
save  by  the  authority  of  an  Emperor  who  lived  in 
seclusion  and  was  protected  only  by  a  tradition. 
But  no  army  has  ever  so  completely  guarded  a 
ruler  as  the  Imperial  tradition,  wrought  into  the 
very  fiber  of  Japanese  life,  guarded  the  Emperor. 


154    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Ise  is  the  seat  of  this  tradition  and  the  point 
of  contact  between  the  Japan  of  to-day  and  the 
Japan  of  two  thousand  years  ago ;  it  has  been  also 
the  meeting-place  of  the  living  and  the  dead. 
To  its  shrines  the  Emperor  has  gone  in  person 
generation  after  generation  to  invoke  the  presence 
and  aid  of  his  ancestors,  to  announce  important 
events,  and  to  give  thanks  for  national  victories. 
The  shrines  are  simple  to  the  point  of  bareness; 
they  are  taken  down  every  twenty  years  and  re- 
placed on  alternate  sites.  The  setting  of  the 
buildings  is  impressive,  and  many  beautiful 
memorials  of  the  past  have  gathered  about  them ; 
but  the  shrines  are  the  perishable  symbols  and 
shelters  of  tradition  as  old  as  the  Empire. 

At  Nikko,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tradition 
of  the  Shogunate,  which  is  already  a  receding 
memory,  is  preserved  in  shrines  of  striking  richness 
of  design  and  color.  Ise  is  on  the  southeastern 
coast,  not  far  from  the  Pacific ;  Nikko  is  north- 
west of  Tokyo  and  has  a  different  climate.  There 
is  a  proverb  which  reads:  "Until  you  have  seen 
Nikko,  do  not  say  splendid!"  And  if  the  view 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    155 

of  the  mountains  and  river  from  below  the  famous 
red  lacquer  bridge  is  not  counted  among  the 
"three  great  sights,"  it  is  because  Japan  is  so  rich 
in  beautiful  views.  The  proper  approach  to  the 
town  is  through  the  avenue  of  cryptomerias,  gi- 
gantic trees  which  attain  a  girth  of  eighteen  or 
twenty  feet  and  a  height  of  a  hundred  feet  and 
more ;  the  shafts  rising  straight  and  symmetrical 
and  reminding  one  of  the  towering  sequoias  of 
California.  This  noble  avenue,  originally  forty 
miles  in  length,  was  the  gift  of  a  Daimyo  who  was 
too  poor  to  enrich  the  shrines,  but  who,  like  many 
another  great  donor,  builded  better  than  he  knew. 
Nature  came  to  his  aid  and  has  made  an  approach 
to  the  shrines  more  impressive  than  gates  of  gold 
or  bronze  or  lacquer. 

The  traveler  is  likely  to  make  his  approach  to 
Nikko  by  the  less  impressive,  but  more  con- 
venient way  of  the  railway  station,  where  he 
will  be  put  into  a  kuruma  and  drawn  up  the 
long,  narrow  street  lined  with  little  shops,  which  is 
not  only  the  thoroughfare  of  what  one  of  the 
guidebooks  happily  describes  as  the  "long,  thin 


156    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

town/'  but  is  much  the  larger  part  of  the  town  ; 
the  hotels  at  the  top  of  the  hill  and  the  temples 
across  the  river  form  another  community.  The 
brawling  river,  which  sometimes  has  tragic  moods, 
rushes  through  the  gorge  and  loses  itself  among  the 
hills  below.  Twelve  years  ago,  after  torrential 
rains  had  undermined  the  slope  of  an  extinct 
volcano  covered  with  trees,  a  landslide  plunged 
down  the  slope  with  thundering  velocity  into 
Chuzenji  Lake  and  sent  a  vast  flood  of  displaced 
water  surging  over  a  precipice,  and  thence,  roaring 
like  a  devouring  dragon,  down  the  narrow  channel 
of  the  river.  The  earth  trembled  with  the  shock ; 
the  ominous  prophecy  of  a  dark,  suffocating 
morning,  which  had  sent  hosts  of  people  to  the 
temples,  was  fulfilled  in  the  few  tense,  appalling 
moments  during  which  the  swirling  mass  of  water 
rose  suddenly  up  the  banks  of  the  river  and  swept 
into  its  current  tea  houses,  trees,  everything  that 
stood  in  its  path.  The  children,  dismissed  from 
one  of  the  schools  by  a  head  master  who  yielded 
to  his  forebodings  of  disaster,  had  barely  crossed 
the  lower  bridge  when  the  torrent  swept  the  three 


/I  Famous  Shrine  at  Nikko 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    157 

bridges  out  of  its  path  and  hurled  the  shattered 
fragments  on  the  little  plain  below,  where  massive 
bowlders  still  evidence  the  irresistible  power  of  the 
flood.  It  was  a  terrifying  moment;  with  every 
indication  of  the  final  catastrophe.  The  plunge 
of  the  torrent  past  the  town  "was  hysterically 
synchronized  by  every  electrically  charged  wire 
in  the  town,  and  by  every  temple  bell  and  sus- 
pended gong  within  the  sacred  grove."  The 
temples  standing  in  the  ancient  groves  on  four 
great  terraces  on  the  hillside  were  fortunately  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  devouring  flood. 

There  is  a  line  of  age-worn  stone  Buddhas 
sitting  in  ancient  silence  along  the  river  bank  at 
a  little  distance  above  the  town ;  in  their  long 
brooding  on  the  unst ability  of  worldly  things  and 
of  human  fate  they  never  looked  upon  a  more 
appalling  display  of  the  forces  that  play  with  the 
impotence  of  men  than  on  that  autumnal  morning. 
The  maddened  river,  which  took  no  thought  of 
sacred  things,  swept  some  of  the  stone  figures  from 
their  bases,  wrecked  a  beautiful  temple  standing 
in  a  lovely  garden,  sent  its  fragments  and  the 


158    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

whirling  stone  Buddhas  crashing  against  the 
sacred  red  bridge,  lifted  it  as  if  it  were  a  child's 
toy;  hurled  it  against  the  other  two  bridges,  and 
scattered  their  fragments  along  a  hundred  miles  of 
shore.  The  destruction  involved  not  only  life 
and  property  but  the  landscape  itself,  on  which  it 
has  left  ineffaceable  scars. 

But  Japan  is  familiar  with  volcanoes,  earth- 
quakes, and  devastating  storms,  and  knows  how 
to  bind  up  wounds  with  kindness,  rebuild  with 
patience,  and  go  forward  with  courage ;  and  Nikko 
is  still,  as  its  name  indicates,  a  "sunny  splendor." 
The  splendor  is  always  there ;  but  the  sun  is  not 
always  in  evidence,  for  rains  are  abundant  and 
often  torrential.  By  way  of  compensation,  the 
landscape  has  depth  and  richness  of  coloring,  and 
living  green  spreads  itself  like  a  garment  over 
every  exposed  surface  of  stone  or  wood. 

Looking  up  the  gorge  from  the  bridge  which 
spans  the  river  below  the  sacred  red  bridge,  the 
landscape  is  enfolded  in  mountains,  with  ravines 
in  which  ferns  lead  a  life  of  riotous  beauty  and 
groves  of  impressive  trees  suggest  that  nature  has 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    159 

adopted  the  scale  of  the  mountains  for  living  as  well 
as  inanimate  things.  The  great  girth  and  mass 
of  the  trees,  which  seem  planned  to  guard  sacred 
places,  are  softened  and  humanized,  so  to  speak, 
by  the  rich  profusion  and  delicate  beauty  of  the 
flowers  which  spring  in  radiant  carelessness  out  of 
every  bit  of  earth,  however  exposed,  as  if  the  soil 
held  an  inexhaustible  wealth  of  beauty  which  it 
was  eager  to  spend  on  every  comer.  If  Perdita 
had  been  born  in  Japan  instead  of  in  an  imaginary 
Bohemia,  she  would  have  made  a  rosary  of  the 
flowers  in  Nikko,  from  the  plum  blossoms  which 
"take  the  winds  of  March  with  beauty,"  through 
the  months  of  the  cherry,  the  wistaria,  the  azalea, 
clematis,  and  iris,  to  the  crimson  maples  which 
set  the  hillsides  ablaze  when  the  golden  weather 
comes  in  autumn. 

At  Ise  the  Imperial  tradition  is  enthroned  and 
the  very  air  is  charged  with  loyalty  to  the  dynasty 
which,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  two  thousand 
years,  rules  from  the  throne  in  the  person  of  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty-second  Emperor.  At 
Nikko  the  tradition  of  the  Shogunate  and  the 


160    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

curious  dual  government  of  Japan  is  preserved  in 
a  group  of  gorgeous  temples  and  shrines ;  but  it  is 
a  tradition  which  is  fast  receding  into  the  past. 
The  last  of  the  Shoguns  surrendered  his  power  to 
the  Emperor  in  1S6S;  and  died  in  retirement  in 
Tokyo  last  year.  Ise  enshrines  a  living  power  with 
the  fine  simplicity  of  the  Shinto  faith ;  Xikko 
guards  a  memory  with  the  splendor  through  which 
Buddhism,  the  most  characteristic  of  the  Oriental 
religions,  expresses  its  mystical  meaning. 

The  first  Shogun,  Yoritomo,  the  head  of  a 
powerful  clan,  established  his  power  late  in  the 
twelfth  century,  scrupulously  invoking  and  acting 
under  the  authority  of  the  Emperor.  Shogun 
succeeded  Shogun  for  eight  hundred  years  ;  but  in 
all  that  time,  and  when  the  actual  authority  was 
entirely  in  their  hands  and  the  Emperor  was 
living  in  seclusion  in  a  palace  in  Kyoto,  no  Sho- 
gun ever  ruled  save  under  Imperial  commission. 
AVhcn  the  Mikado  was  practically  powerless,  so  far 
as  arms  and  men  were  concerned,  his  authority  was 
still  supreme  in  Japan  ;  and,  while  the  Shogun 
ruled,  the  Emperor  reigned,  and  in  ceremony  and 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY   SPLENDOR"    161 

public  action  of  every  kind  the  Imperial  supremacy 
was  scrupulously  recognized.  There  never  were 
two  Emperors  in  Japan,  one  ecclesiastical  and  the 
other  temporal ;  there  was  always  one  Emperor, 
and  the  Shogun  was  his  executive  representative. 
The  Shogunate  passed  from  one  family  to  another 
until,  two  hundred  years  ago,  it  became  the 
possession  of  the  Tokugawa  family  in  the  person 
of  leyasu,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  long  line  of 
rulers  of  Japan.  His  memory7  and  that  of  his 
grandson,  lemitsu,  have  given  Nikko  its  prestige 
as  a  sacred  place. 

It  is  said  that  travelers  go  to  Nikko  and  leave 
the  temples  unvisited  as  tourists  go  to  England 
and  avoid  the  cathedrals ;  but  in  a  very  real  sense 
the  temples  are  Nikko.  They  stand  in  what 
some  one  has  called  a  striking  "recessive  beauty," 
building  behind  building,  with  long,  shaded 
avenues  and  flights  of  stone  steps  slowly  and 
meditatively  ascending  the  slope  of  the  hill  in 
the  foreground.  There  is  an  inexhaustible  rich- 
ness of  detail  in  the  temples,  a  beauty  of  delicate 
workmanship  in  the  fashioning  of  hidden  or  minor 


162    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

parts  which  is  characteristic  of  Japanese  craftsman- 
ship and  gives  every  visit  the  interest  of  exploration 
and  discovery ;  but  the  spell  lies  in  the  large  im- 
pression, the  sense  of  composition  of  the  complete 
picture.  The  temples,  daring  in  color  without  and 
within,  have  become  as  much  a  part  of  the  land- 
scape as  the  trees  and  the  moss-grown  stones  and 
monuments ;  and  the  tone  of  the  hillside  is  marvel- 
ously  rich.  A  subdued  splendor  lies  softly  veiled 
over  the  whole  as  if  nature  had  been  enriched,  not 
by  embellishment  from  without,  but  by  a  subtle 
emanation  from  within.  That  it  is  a  strange  and 
alien  beauty  does  not  repel ;  it  rather  draws  the 
visitor  from  the  farther  world  into  an  intimacy 
never  quite  complete,  but  for  that  reason  stimu- 
lating and  awakening.  Such  lavish  blending  of 
black,  white,  and  red,  of  bronze,  gold,  and  lacquer, 
has  for  one  trained  by  Western  examples  and 
practice  a  certain  power  of  excitement  akin  to  the 
restlessness  which  seems  to  issue  from  the  cathe- 
drals at  Sienna  and  Pisa. 

But  if  one  is  ready  to  welcome  beauty  in  strange 
forms  and  combinations,  the  groves  of  Nikko  are 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    163 

as  wonderful  in  their  way  as  the  great  open,  high- 
lighted spaces  in  which  the  Greek  temples  are  set. 
The  blaze  of  color  in  the  depths  of  the  green  woods 
seems  at  first  like  an  intrusion  of  audacious  artifice 
into  the  silent,  shadowy  places  where  colors  ought 
to  be  low  and  quiet.  It  is,  however,  one  of  the 
laws  of  life  which  the  open-minded  pilgrim  dis- 
covers that  no  shrine  is  wholly  unconsecrated  by 
truth,  nor  is  any  without  subtle  and  deep  relations 
with  race  and  soil  and  sky.  The  shrines  at  Nikko 
are  as  splendid  in  color  as  the  Greek  temples  were 
glorious  in  line  and  structure,  in  marvelous 
harmony  with  light  and  shadow;  they  have  the 
same  reality  of  relation  to  faith  and  history.  Seen 
again  and  again,  they  do  not  cease  to  be  strange, 
but  they  are  no  longer  alien.  They  speak  of 
things  which  are  part  of  the  history  of  all  peoples : 
of  the  mystery  of  things,  of  unseen  presences,  of 
inexplicable  experiences,  of  courage  bred  by 
disaster,  of  winged  hope  mounting  through  the 
clouds ;  but  they  use  a  different  language. 

Dead  rulers  are  not  buried  in  the  temples  at 
Nikko  as  they  are  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey, 


164    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

as  they  were  buried  in  St.  Denis,  in  the  silence  and 
sanctity  of  a  place  in  which  their  subsidence  into 
the  universal  impotency  is  an  appeal  for  mercy; 
they  have  their  places,  not  beside  the  eternal  gods, 
but  in  their  august  companionship ;  they  share 
the  reverence  of  worshipers  with  the  gods  them- 
selves ;  they  are  not  wholly  divine,  but  they  are 
so  far  from  mortality  that  they  are  prayed  to 
rather  than  prayed  for.  It  is  their  power  which 
the  splendor  of  the  shrines  expresses  rather  than 
the  majesty  of  the  religion  under  whose  sheltering 
roof  they  are  laid  to  rest.  In  the  nature  of  things, 
therefore,  the  temples  at  Nikko  must  lose  much  of 
their  sanctity  as  time  goes  on  ;  but  they  will  gain 
deep  interest  as  historical  monuments  and  as 
examples  of  ancient  architecture.  They  are,  for 
the  most  part,  Buddhistic  in  form  and  embellish- 
ment, though  the  motives  which  they  express  are 
essentially  Shintoistic,  and  since  the  establish- 
ment of  Buddhism  they  have  been  under  Shinto 
control. 

The  buildings  are  low;   deep  shadows  are  cast 
by  the  wide,  overhanging  eaves  ;  great  trees  enfold 


NIKKO,   THE   "SUNNY  SPLENDOR"    165 

and  guard  them,  not  only  from  the  profane  tumult 
of  the  outer  world,  but  from  the  glare  of  light ; 
and  one  gradually  becomes  conscious  of  the  subtle 
harmonies  of  foliage,  sloping  roof,  golden  door, 
and  glowing  porch,  and  of  the  atmosphere  which 
subdues  and  enfolds  the  hillside  in  a  soft  splendor 
of  tone. 

The  two  men  whose  memory  is  enshrined  at 
Nikko  were  fighters  whose  swords  commanded 
their  fortunes,  and  who  have  striven,  by  the 
radiant  memorials  they  decreed  for  themselves,  to 
fortify  their  greatness  against  the  assaults  of 
envious  time.  They  have  adroitly  built  their  fame 
into  the  structure  of  religion  itself ;  but  they 
remain  parvenus  among  the  gods.  In  the  rich 
mass  of  details  which  bewilder  the  visitor  he  will 
imagine  that  in  the  carved  dragon  heads  that 
decorate  the  gates,  the  fighting  white  dragons,  and 
the  gilt  dragon  heads  that  bear  up  the  curving  roof 
of  the  gate  of  the  second  temple  court,  the  spirit 
of  these  masterful  men  is  expressed. 

Around  the  two  memorial  shrines  at  Nikko  other 
temples  have  gathered  until  a  great  community 


166    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

of  shrines  has  grown  up,  with  a  bewildering  mass 
of  adjuncts :  torii,  open  courts,  pillars,  lanterns, 
fountains,  gardens;  the  grave,  sweet  tones  of 
the  bronze  bells  seem  to  gather  and  express  the 
deep  quietness  and  ancient  splendor  so  wrought 
upon  by  the  hand  of  time  that  white  and  black  and 
red  lacquer  in  gate  and  temple  and  golden  doors 
and  gorgeous  ceilings  are  subdued  into  harmony 
with  the  gloom  of  mighty  trees  and  the  shadows 
of  mountains. 

But  Nikko  is  more  beautiful  than  its  temples, 
and  its  enchanting  walks  take  one  to  more  sacred 
places.  The  paths  that  follow  the  river  lead  to 
wild,  rocky  gorges,  with  intermediate  cascades, 
and  at  the  end  the  roar  and  spray  of  a  waterfall  ; 
those  that  climb  the  mountains  open  vistas  of 
wide-spreading  plains,  and,  if  your  ambition  is 
backed  by  walking  power,  you  can  gain  the  prize 
of  all  Japanese  mountain-climbing  —  a  glimpse  of 
Fuji,  white  and  solitary  against  the  horizon.  Or 
you  can  rest  at  ease  and  look  at  the  hills  from  the 
bridge  and  be  content. 


The  Cryptomeria  Avenue  at  Nikko 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    INLAND    SEA 

AT  the  first  glance  the  map  of  Japan,  like 
that  of  Switzerland,  looks  very  much  like  a  geo- 
graphical puzzle  —  so  much  country  is  in  the  air, 
so  to  speak.  As  in  Switzerland,  it  is  not  the  area, 
but  the  altitude,  which  complicates  the  geography  ; 
with  the  further  confusion  of  vast  and  irregular 
lines  of  seacoast.  Not  content  with  thousands  of 
miles  of  exterior  coast,  Japan  has  an  Inland  Sea 
which  is,  to  the  visitor  at  least,  a  beautiful  and 
baffling  mystery.  From  the  hills  behind  Kobe, 
on  one  of  those  days  when  the  last  veil  is  not 
lifted  from  the  face  of  the  world,  it  has  the  mystery 
and  allurement  of  a  sea  in  fairyland.  Through 
the  soft  mist,  luminous  with  sunlight,  a  myriad 
sails  are  flitting,  coming  from  one  knows  not  what 
strange  harbors,  bound  to  one  knows  not  what 
strange  ports  with  unpronounceable  names.  As 

167 


168    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  mist  shifts,  now  revealing  and  now  concealing 
the  fleet  of  boats  on  pleasure  or  on  business  bent, 
the  picture  has  all  the  delicate  suggestiveness  of 
Japanese  painting,  which  leaves  the  student 
largely  to  his  own  devices. 

But  the  Inland  Sea  is  not  a  school  'for  painters 
nor  a  summer  sea  for  pleasure-seekers ;  it  is  a 
serious  ocean  of  immense  service  to  commerce. 
It  is  a  waterway  of  nearly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  almost  in  the  center  of  Japan ;  on  the 
west  is  the  shore  of  the  mainland,  if  that  word  may 
be  used  to  designate  the  island  which  is  the  heart 
of  Japan ;  on  the  east  is  the  island  of  Shikoku, 
with  channels  to  the  Pacific  at  either  end ;  and 
at  the  south  is  the  island  of  Kyushu,  the  home  of 
so  much  stirring  history  and  of  so  man)'  of  the 
heroes  of  Old  and  the  leaders  of  Modern  Japan. 
But  these  words  merely  draw  boundary  lines, 
and  the  mysteiy  of  the  Inland  Sea  is  in  the  islands 
that  rise  out  of  its  depths  or  lie  on  its  surface 
like  fragments  of  a  wrecked  continent.  The 
Japanese  count  them  into  the  thousands;  and 
one  is  ready  to  believe  that  geography  has  out- 


THE  INLAND   SEA  169 

stripped  mathematics  in  this  world  in  which 
land  and  water  seem  almost  interchangeable. 
The  Japanese  pilots,  who  have  doubtless  been 
familiar  with  the  complications  oi  Japanese  chess 
from  their  youth  up,  find  their  way  as  if  by  instinct 
through  channels  between  islands  so  small  that 
they  seem  to  serve  no  purpose  but  to  form  a 
marine  puzzle.  Tremendous  forces  were  once  at 
play  rather  than  at  work  here,  and  many  of  the 
islands  tempt  one  to  believe  that  the  volcanic 
energy  which  gave  the  Empire  its  form  and  shape 
was  in  a  blithesome  mood  here  some  day  a  million 
years  ago.  There  are  larger  islands  of  mountain- 
ous lift  and  contour,  and  there  are  a  myriad  small 
islands  of  every  shape  save  those  that  are  familiar, 
and  of  every  imaginable  size.  These  tiny  islets 
are  not  content  to  spread  at  ease  on  the  level 
water ;  they  often  rise  to  ambitious  heights, 
sometimes  green  with  foliage,  sometimes  gray 
and  ominous  rocks  of  fantastic  form.  The  charm 
of  the  sea  lies  not  alone  in  the  picturesque  lines 
and  colors  of  these  bits  of  land  sown,  so  to  speak, 
on  its  surface,  but  in  the  ever  changing  landscape 


170    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

from  which  one  emerges  at  points  where  there 
seemed  no  opening,  to  escape  into  other  landscapes 
through  channels  which  elude  the  untrained  eye 
of  the  landsman.  Even  the  frugal  and  hardy 
Japanese,  to  whom  odds  and  ends  of  land  which 
most  races  would  count  mere  geographical  refuse 
are  challenges  to  skill  and  work,  find  some  of  these 
islands  too  small  or  too  precipitous  for  occupation  ; 
but  on  ever}-  available  island  little  houses  cling  to 
the  sides,  and,  if  there  is  room  enough,  villages  of 
aquatic  farmers  —  half  fishermen  and  half  farmers 
—  dot  the  shores,  and  fishing  boats  and  trading 
junks  spin  the  webs  of  commerce  from  island  to 
island.  In  pleasant  wreather  the  Inland  Sea 
is  enchanting ;  in  all  weather  it  is  a  highway  for 
trade  and  travel,  not  only  from  point  to  point 
within  its  protecting  shores,  but  from  the  ports 
in  China  and  farther  away  —  ports  with  names 
that  bring  the  sights  and  sounds  of  the  Far  East 
with  them,  as  the  East  India  ships  of  the  old  times 
at  the  docks  of  New  England  seaports  brought  the 
odors  of  the  far-away  Orient  spices  to  boys  seeking 
adventure  on  half  holidays. 


THE  INLAND   SEA  171 

The  ideal  exploration  of  the  Inland  Sea  is  by 
yacht  if  means  and  fair  weather  conspire  to  make 
a  vacation  happier  than  a  "Roman  holiday," 
for  this  sea  has  enchantments  that  demand  leisure 
and  a  mind  indifferent  to  time  and  dates.  But  for 
the  democracy  of  travel,  denied  these  special 
privileges,  there  are  very  comfortable  steamers 
which  traverse  the  sea  in  about  twenty  hours, 
and  are  supplemented  by  boats  of  lighter  draught 
which  make  their  way  through  the  shallow 
channels  between  the  islands.  If  one  is  in  search 
of  rest  and  can  take  it  in  the  Japanese  way,  he 
will  find  it  in  little  inns  in  little  communities  with 
unpronounceable  names. 

He  will  not  escape  Hiroshima,  with  its  castle 
and  charming  garden;  and  at  Miyajima  he  will 
find  himself  at  one  of  the  shrines  of  beauty  in 
Japan,  an  enchanted  island,  rocky  and  wooded, 
and  so  sacred  that  formerly  births  and  deaths  were 
forbidden  —  a  prohibition  so  drastic  that  it  could 
not  be  enforced  even  in  Japan.  Miniature  valleys, 
green  and  inviting,  run  down  to  the  sea  and  make 
charming  background  for  the  inns  and  tea  houses 


172    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

which  provide  for  the  entertainment  of  pilgrims, 
and  for  the  little  houses  of  the  fishermen  and 
carvers  of  images  who  make  up  the  working  popu- 
lation. There  are  no  dogs  on  the  island,  but  there 
are  impertinent  and  noisy  crows,  and  the  deer  are 
as  numerous  and  tame  as  in  the  park  at  Xara. 

The  temple  or  temples  had  a  wide  reputation  for 
magnificence  centuries  ago ;  but  to-day  the  most 
striking  feature  of  the  religious  uses  of  the  island 
is  the  torii  which  rises  out  of  the  sea,  and  is  one  of 
the  "things  Japanese"  most  widely  used  on  post- 
cards and  for  decorative  advertisements.  By 
moonlight,  when  the  piles  on  which  the  temples 
rest  are  obscured  or  suffer  a  sea  change,  there  are 
few  views  in  the  world  that  take  greater  lib- 
erties with  the  imagination.  A  veiy  pretty  and 
symbolic  tradition  declares  that  the  fire  on  a 
small  shrine  on  a  hill  near  the  center  of  the  island 
was  lighted  by  the  famous  sage  Kobo  Daishi 
and  has  never  gone  out. 

The  Strait  of  Shimonoseki,  at  the  end  of  the 
Inland  Sea,  separates  the  main  island  from  the 
island  of  Kyushu,  and,  with  its  framing  of  hills, 


THE   INLAND  SEA  173 

reminds  one  of  the  Bay  of  Naples ;  on  a  bright 
morning,  when  the  sunlight  lies  on  curving  shore 
and  wooded  height,  and  flashes  and  sparkles  from 
the  face  of  the  water  broken  into  a  thousand  sur- 
faces by  the  currents  that  rush  from  sea  to  sea,  the 
loveliness  of  the  landscape,  with  the  life  and  color 
of  the  sea  pulsing  through  it,  has  the  freshness  and 
vitality  of  a  new-made  world.  The  tall  chimneys 
and  big,  ugly  buildings  in  one  locality  convince 
the  most  enthusiastic  lover  of  a  landscape  which  is 
yet  to  be  adequately  celebrated  that  business  has 
had  time  to  intrench  itself  at  the  western  gateway 
of  Japan.  Not  far  away  are  secluded  temples 
almost  hidden  by  ancient  pines  which  seem  mutely 
to  protest  against  an  intrusion  which  they  are 
powerless  to  avert. 

History,  both  ancient  and  modern,  has  been 
enacted  here  on  a  great  scale,  and  Old  Japan 
lives  in  dramatic  traditions  of  "  old,  unhappy,  far- 
off  things,  and  battles  long  ago."  In  the  little 
shops  one  finds  queer  little  dried  and  polished  crabs 
with  strange  markings  for  sale.  They  are  brought 
from  the  eastern  shore  and  are  called  chieftain  or 


174    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

dragon's  head.  Once  upon  a  time,  so  the  story 
runs,  two  powerful  clans  were  at  war,  one  of  which 
was  led  by  a  warrior  of  such  resistless  daring  and 
skill  that  the  opposing  clan  was  annihilated.  As 
the  slain  or  drowning  men  sank  in  the  water  their 
spirits  assumed  these  strange  shapes,  and  the 
fury  or  agony  of  the  death  struggle  is  visible 
in  the  faces  and  on  the  backs  of  the  crabs.  The 
superstition  is  a  curious  survival  of  the  impression 
made  on  the  minds  of  the  common  people  by  the 
fierceness  and  ferocity  of  a  fight  which  became  a 
synonym  for  the  courage  of  despair  and  the 
cruelty  of  maddened  victors. 

Japan  was  well  supplied  with  Emperors  at 
the  time :  two  were  in  retirement,  and  two,  who 
were  boys  of  six  or  eight,  were  claimants  of  the 
throne,  each  supported  by  a  fighting  clan.  After 
various  vicissitudes,  one  of  the  Imperial  boys  was 
taken  for  safety  to  the  island  of  Kyushu.  The 
fugitives  were  pursued  and  overtaken  by  their 
enemies  in  the  strait  not  far  from  Shimonoseki, 
and  one  of  the  fiercest  naval  battles  in  the  history 
of  Japan  was  fought  with  a  desperation  which  has 


THE  INLAND  SEA  175 

invested  it  with  the  fascination  of  a  kind  of  ele- 
mental fury.  If  tradition  is  to  be  trusted,  twelve 
hundred  vessels  were  engaged  in  fierce  hand-to- 
hand  conflicts.  The  Emperor  Antoku  —  the 
"little  Emperor,"  as  he  is  affectionately  called,  a 
boy  of  six  —  was  in  one  of  the  vessels  of  his 
supporters,  the  Taira  clan,  whose  vessels  were 
crowded  with  women  and  children.  These  vessels 
were  very  small,  and  the  men  fought  at  short 
range  with  spears  and  swords  and  bows  and 
arrows.  The  battle  was  a  series  of  fierce  duels, 
and  abounded  in  dramatic  incidents  which  story- 
tellers and  painters  have  embellished  with  imagi- 
nary as  well  as  real  horrors. 

At  the  critical  moment,  when  the  losing  clan, 
outnumbered  by  their  foes,  were  fighting  with  the 
desperation  of  those  who  are  bent  only  on  exacting 
the  highest  price  for  their  lives,  one  of  their  lead- 
ers turned  traitor  and  went  over  to  the  enemy. 
The  "little  Emperor"  was  accompanied  by  his 
mother  and  several  ladies  of  the  Court,  with  the 
imperial  regalia.  The  traitor  made  this  known 
to  the  leader  of  the  victorious  clan,  who  instantly 


176    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

formed  a  plan  to  isolate  the  vessel  which  carried 
this  precious  party  and  capture  it.  When  it 
became  clear  that  the  battle  was  lost  and  that  they 
were  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  victorious  clan, 
the  Emperor's  mother  seized  the  sacred  sword 
and  plunged  into  the  water.  The  boy  Emperor, 
who  did  not  understand  the  confusion  about  him, 
asked  the  Court  lady  who  was  his  attendant  why 
they  did  not  go  to  the  palace.  Telling  him  that 
they  were  going  to  a  very  beautiful  palace,  she 
took  the  child  in  her  arms  and  sprang  into  the 
sea  with  him.  The  tragedy,  which  made  a  deep 
and  painful  impression  on  the  people,  is  commemo- 
rated by  a  monument  on  a  ledge  of  rocks  in  the 
channel.  The  sword  was  recovered  many  years 
afterward,  and  is  reverently  preserved  in  a  temple 
on  the  hillside,  from  which  one  looks  down  on 
the  water  in  which  it  sank. 

During  the  troubled  times  that  followed  the 
opening  of  Japan  to  the  world  the  strait  was  the 
scene  of  one  of  those  outbursts  of  old-time  antago- 
nism against  foreigners  which  were  inevitable 
incidents  in  a  change  of  the  policy  of  nearly  three 


THE  INLAND  SEA  177 

centuries.  The  Shogun  had  signed  a  treaty  of 
amity  with  the  United  States,  but  the  Court 
of  the  Mikado  was  still  bent  on  keeping  up  the 
historic  policy  of  seclusion,  and  there  were  many 
adherents  of  this  policy  among  the  Daimios  or 
feudal  chiefs.  Among  these  was  the  Daimio  of 
Choshu,  who  threw  up  batteries  on  the  shores 
and  put  vessels  of  war  on  guard.  In  June,  1863, 
acting  on  his  own  initiative,  or  possibly  at  the 
instigation  of  the  anti-foreign  party  that  sur- 
rounded the  Mikado  at  Kyoto,  this  Daimio 
fired  on  a  small  American  trading  ship.  No 
damage  was  done,  but  later  a  French  gun- 
boat sustained  serious  injury  and  a  Dutch  ship 
of  war,  attempting  to  pass  through  the  strait, 
was  subjected  to  a  heavy  fire  from  the  Daimio 's 
vessels  and  batteries,  and  vigorously  responded. 

The  Shogun 's  government  was  powerless  to 
enforce  the  treaty  which  it  had  signed,  and  an 
American  man-of-war  that  lay  in  the  harbor  of 
Yokohama  was  promptly  sent  to  the  scene  of 
action,  where  a  French  frigate  shortly  joined  her. 
These  vessels,  acting  independently,  silenced  some 


178  .  JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

of  the  batteries  and  sank  several  ships.  The 
hostile  acts  of  the  Daimio  of  Choshu  were  dis- 
avowed by  the  Shogun,  but  claims  for  damages 
were  promptly  made ;  and,  although  the  Shogun's 
treasury  was  on  the  verge,  if  not  over  the  edge, 
of  bankruptcy,  and  the  American  vessel  had  es- 
caped without  injury,  an  indemnity  was  secured 
by  the  American  Minister.  The  Shogun  was  un- 
able to  force  his  powerful  subordinate  to  comply 
with  the  demand  of  the  foreign  governments  that 
the  strait  should  be  cleared  of  obstructions,  and 
what  has  been  called  the  "Shimonoseki  Expedi- 
tion," consisting  of  sixteen  English,  French  and 
Dutch  war  vessels  and  one  steamer  chartered 
for  the  occasion  by  the  United  States,  was  sent 
to  the  strait.  It  speedily  reduced  the  forts  to 
silence  by  a  vigorous  bombardment,  which  in- 
cidentally inflicted  serious  injury  on  many  people 
who  were  innocent  pawns  in  a  losing  game  played 
by  a  recalcitrant  Daimio  who  did  not  know  that 
he  was  measuring  strength  with  the  combined 
power  of  the  West  in  alliance  with  scientific 
methods  and  forces,  of  which  Japan  had  just  be- 
gun to  have  some  knowledge. 


THE  INLAND  SEA  179 

The  foreign  Powers  had  cause  for  irritation,  and 
a  display  of  force  was  probably  necessary  to  bring 
an  ignorant  and  obstinate  Daimio  to  a  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  Japan  was  no  longer  closed  to 
foreign  intercourse ;  but  their  treatment  of  the 
Shogun's  Government  was  neither  intelligent  nor 
fair.  The  foreign  governments  failed  to  recognize 
the  difficulties  which  the  Shogun  faced  in  the  con- 
fusion of  a  revolutionary  period  forced  upon  the 
country  by  foreign  interference,  and  they  exacted 
an  indemnity  of  three  million  dollars  for  damages 
and  expenses ;  of  which  the  United  States,  France 
and  the  Netherlands  were  to  receive  one  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  dollars  for  actual  damage 
sustained;  the  remainder  was  to  be  divided 
between  the  four  Powers  which  united  in  the 
expedition ;  twelve  thousand  dollars  had  already 
been  collected  by  the  American  Minister  for 
imaginary  damages  suffered  by  the  American 
vessel  first  fired  upon.  It  was  not  a  creditable 
transaction  to  the  foreign  governments  which  took 
part  in  it,  and  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  remember 
that  public  sentiment  in  the  United  States  con- 


180    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

demned  the  share  taken  by  our  Government,  and 
in  1883  Congress  returned  to  Japan  the  amount 
received  as  indemnity.  This  fund,  amounting  to 
nearly  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  was  ex- 
pended in  building  the  great  breakwater  in  the 
harbor  of  Yokohama,  which  not  only  affords 
protection  against  the  furious  storms  which  sweep 
the  coast  during  the  semitropical  summer,  but  is 
a  permanent  memorial  of  the  friendship  of  the 
United  States  for  a  country  \vhich  it  took  the 
great  responsibility  of  opening  to  the  world. 

All  this  happened  fifty  years  ago,  and  one  sees 
in  the  wide  landscape  to-day  only  evidences  of  a 
"far-flung  battle-line"  of  international  trade 
relations.  The  latest  historical  event  of  impor- 
tance was  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between 
Japan  and  China  in  1895  in  a  tea  house  surrounded 
by  flowers,  on  the  hillside  overlooking  the  westward 
channel.  In  a  room  in  which  pleasant  luncheons 
are  pleasantly  served  Li  Hung  Chang  and  Prince 
Ito  held  many  conferences,  and  finally  agreed 
upon  terms  of  peace  between  two  countries  which 
have  so  many  interests  in  common  that  they  must 


THE  INLAND   SEA  181 

come    into    very    close    relations    in    the    near 
future. 

There  is  perhaps  no  other  place  in  Japan  in  which 
one  gets  such  a  keen  sense  of  the  international 
relationships  of  modern  Japan  and  of  the  ex- 
pansion of  its  rule.  Well-appointed  and  attractive 
steamships  sail  every  day  across  the  channel  to 
Fusan,  the  southern  port  of  Korea,  ten  hours 
distant  across  the  channel ;  lines  on  the  maps 
sweep  the  seas  north  and  south  from  the  entrance 
to  the  strait  and  bring  within  the  vision  the  coast- 
lines of  Asia  and  of  groups  of  islands  in  the  mysteri- 
ous distance  of  the  Pacific ;  while  American  and 
European  "liners"  at  anchor  in  mid-stream  bind 
the  ends  of  the  earth  together  in  the  community 
of  mutual  interests  and  common  activities  which 
predict  the  greater  neighborliness  of  the  future. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AT   PORT   ARTHUR 

PORT  ARTHUR  was  surrendered  to  General  Nogi 
on  the  second  day  of  January,  1905 ;  only  nine 
years  have  passed  since  the  terrible  siege  ended, 
and  the  shouts  of  "Woolah!  Woolah!"  piercing 
the  clouds  of  smoke,  shot  through  with  sudden 
lightning,  that  hid  the  forts  on  the  surrounding 
hills,  were  met  by  the  shouts  of  "  Banzai !  Banzai ! " 
from  the  battalions  climbing  the  paths  to  death 
and  victory.  And  yet  to  one  who  visits  the  battle 
fields  the  struggle  seems  as  old  as  the  Trojan  War ; 
its  appalling  severity,  the  sweep  of  the  battle- 
line  and  its  horrors,  seem  to  remove  it  to  a  remote 
past.  Across  the  narrow  sea  the  wounds  it  left 
are  still  fresh,  the  places  it  made  vacant  are  un- 
filled ;  but  to  those  who  come  from  the  West  it  is 
like  the  other  nightmares  of  war  from  which  the 
world  long  ago  awakened. 

182 


AT   PORT  ARTHUR  183 

Never  had  a  great  historic  siege  a  more  mag- 
nificent setting.  Gibraltar  stands  in  a  wider  and 
softer  landscape ;  but  Port  Arthur  might  be  the 
shrine  of  Hachimon,  the  God  of  War.  The  harbor, 
hidden  from  the  sea  by  hills  crowned  with  forts, 
has  an  entrance  so  narrow  that  two  ships  sunk  bow 
to  stern  would  block  the  channel ;  the  mountains 
sweep  in  a  great  circle  around  the  horizon,  and 
within  this  arena  lesser  hills  crowd  one  upon  the 
other.  Nine  years  ago  every  summit  was  a  vol- 
cano whence  death  blazed  and  thundered,  and  all 
the  horrors  of  modern  war  reenforced  by  science 
fell  with  crushing  weight  on  the  army  of  assailants. 
On  a  clear  spring  day,  under  bright  skies,  with  men 
at  work  in  the  valleys,  it  is  hard  to  realize  the 
drama  that  was  enacted  on  this  peaceful  stage 
less  than  a  decade  ago ;  but  an  hour  in  the  military 
museum,  a  walk  or  drive  from  one  battlefield 
to  another  in  landscape  in  which  every  hill  was 
carried  by  storm,  brings  back  the  clamor  of  armies 
and  the  roar  of  batteries.  To  the  Japanese  Port 
Arthur  stirs  the  blood  as  Gettysburg  stirs  the 
blood  of  the  American ;  it  was  the  scene  of  the 


184    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

most  decisive  battle  in  his  history,  of  the  most 
heroic  achievement  of  his  people. 

To  him  the  sacrifice  is  so  recent  that  the  pain 
is  still  poignant ;  to  the  American  the  victory  was 
so  significant  that  the  vastness  of  personal  loss 
and  sorrow  are  hidden  by  the  historic  results  of 
the  conflict.  The  aspect  of  the  landscape  conveys 
a  sense  of  the  desperate  valor  and  skill  which  dis- 
lodged the  Russians  from  a  fortress  which  they 
regarded  as  impregnable.  If  it  had  been  planned 
for  defense  by  a  military  strategist,  it  could  hardly 
have  been  made  more  difficult  of  capture  by  an 
invading  army.  Every  movement  of  approach 
for  miles  around  can  be  seen;  and  the  searchlights 
from  the  hills  swept  the  valleys  night  after  night 
during  the  siege,  and  not  a  man  could  advance 
unseen  unless  he  dug  his  way  through  the  earth. 
And  every  way  of  attack  was  swept  by  a  merciless 
fire  of  artillery.  The  famous  skill  of  the  Russians 
in  fortification,  which  at  Sevastopol  kept  the  allied 
armies  of  England  and  France  at  bay  for  nearly  a 
year,  had  piled  fortress  above  fortress,  and  in- 
trenched eveiy  hill  with  every  kind  of  modern  de- 


AT  PORT  ARTHUR  185 

fensive  rampart  and  weapon.  Every  kind  of 
cannon  swept  attacking  parties  at  a  distance ;  ma- 
chine guns  swept  their  ranks  with  fearful  precision 
as  they  drew  nearer ;  and  every  hillside  was  under- 
mined and  planted  with  explosives  which  by  the 
pressure  of  a  foot  sent  the  torn  bodies  of  men 
flying  in  the  air,  and  was  covered  with  lines  of 
barbed  wire  through  which  deadly  currents  of 
electricity  took  men  unaware  and  felled  them  as 
with  invisible  clubs ;  while  wire  entanglements 
which  lacerated  in  fatal  meshes  waited  for  those 
who  stepped  into  hidden  pits. 

To  the  Japanese  who  stormed  those  hills  one 
after  another  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1904  it  must  have  seemed  as  if  nature  itself  were 
in  alliance  with  the  Russians ;  for  not  only  were 
the  summits  of  the  hills  fiery  volcanoes,  but,  as 
they  climbed,  the  earth  under  their  feet  burst 
open  and  death  issued  from  the  ground  itself. 

The  military  museum  shows  little  of  the 
pageantry  of  war,  but  much  of  its  horror.  The 
building  itself  bears  the  scars  of  battle,  for  two 
great  fissures  through  the  walls  mark  the  track 


186     JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

of  bombs ;  while  dismantled  guns,  iron  shields 
perforated  by  bullets,  broken  swords,  torpedoes, 
shells  of  every  kind  and  size,  stained  bayonets, 
vividly  recall  charges  and  countercharges.  The 
deadly  instruments  of  defense  and  the  means  of 
avoiding  them  are  placed  side  by  side ;  the  terrible 
live  wires  and  the  great  shears  by  which  they  were 
cut,  with  bamboo  sticks  fastened  to  the  handles 
to  make  them  non-conductors.  This  work  fell 
to  the  engineers ;  but  there  wras  so  much  of  it  to 
be  done  that  the  infantry  were  taught  how  to  do  it. 
Imitation  entanglements  were  constructed,  and 
the  engineer  showed  the  infantry  how  to  cut  the 
wires,  while  another  group  followed  and  sawed  off 
the  stakes.  There  are  the  deadly  hand-grenades 
filled  with  dynamite  which  were  thrown  into  the 
trenches  as  the  men  advanced,  and  there  are  the 
nets  in  which  they  were  caught. 

The  most  impressive  witness  to  the  desperate 
and  obstinate  courage  of  the  besieged  and  the 
besiegers  is  the  mass  of  ruins  on  the  hill  where 
North  Fort  stood.  This  fort  commanded  all  its 
approaches,  and  the  Japanese  literally  dug  their 


AT  PORT  ARTHUR  187 

way  into  it.  They  tunneled  into  the  hill,  blew 
up  an  angle  of  the  bastion,  and  for  thirty  days 
fought  like  madmen  in  the  narrow  gallery,  which 
was  often  piled  high  with  the  bodies  of  the  dead. 
When  the  Russian  sappers  descended  into  the 
counter-tunnel  with  which  they  endeavored  to 
check  the  Japanese  advance,  they  tied  ropes  to 
their  ankles  and  asked  their  comrades  to  draw  up 
their  bodies  after  they  had  been  killed  ! 

The  men  on  both  sides  of  this  historic  siege 
fought  with  desperate  valor,  but  with  this  decisive 
difference :  many  of  the  Russian  soldiers  did  not 
know  where,  under  whom,  or  for  what  they  were 
fighting.  They  simply  obeyed  orders  and  went 
to  death  like  dumb  animals.  The  Japanese 
soldiers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  like  members  of 
a  great  family  defending  their  homes.  They  knew 
their  officers ;  they  were  often  told  what  they  were 
expected  to  do  and  why;  they  were  ready  to 
join  any  "sure  death"  expedition;  they  drank 
the  farewell  cup  of  water  on  the  eve  of  battle 
not  only  willingly  but  joyfully,  for  duty  has  the 
weight  of  a  mountain,  runs  a  Japanese  proverb, 


188    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

and  death  has  the  weight  of  a  feather.  And  they 
died  as  if  they  were  under  the  very  eyes  of  the 
Emperor.  They  were  told  that  their  lives  be- 
longed to  their  commander,  and  that,  if  necessary, 
he  would  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  them,  and  they 
were  eager  to  offer  their  lives  as  a  sacrifice  to  their 
country.  "Our  battalion,"  wrote  one  commander 
to  another,  "is  about  to  make  an  assault,  expecting 
its  own  annihilation.  I  hope  that  you  also  will 
assume  the  offensive."  A  note  written  by  a 
Russian  commander  and  found  on  a  battlefield 
contained  these  words:  "The  Japanese  army 
knows  how  to  march  but  not  how  to  retreat. 
Once  they  begin  to  attack  a  position  they  continue 
most  fiercely  and  obstinately.  ...  A  retreat  may 
sometimes  be  made  useful.  But  the  Japanese 
always  continue  an  attack  irrespective  of  the 
amount  of  danger.  Probably  the  Japanese  books 
of  tactics  make  no  study  at  all  of  retreating  !" 

This  intense  patriotism,  this  joy  in  death  for 
the  Emperor,  who  is  the  incarnation  of  Japan, 
is  a  spirit  which  was  evoked  but  not  created  by 
the  war  fought  in  Manchuria  nine  years  ago. 


AT   PORT   ARTHUR  189 

Whoever  fails  to  take  account  of  it  misses  the 
secret  of  the  nation's  strength,  the  inspiration 
of  its  achievements.  The  Russians  did  not  know 
the  tremendous  force  they  unconsciously  liberated ; 
that  indomitable  spirit;  backed  by  scientific 
education  and  equipment,  will  keep  Japan  secure 
in  spite  of  its  narrow  resources  and  the  grave 
dangers  of  its  position. 

There  are  two  monuments  to  the  heroic  men 
who  died  on  the  hills  about  Port  Arthur.  One 
commemorates  nearly  fifteen  thousand  Russian 
soldiers ;  to  whose  spirits,  on  the  day  of  dedication, 
General  Nogi  read  a  beautiful  address  —  an  in- 
cident which  probably  stands  alone  in  the  history 
of  war.  The  other  is  a  massive  memorial  light- 
house on  Monument  Hill,  and  behind  it  is  a  stone 
shrine  under  which  rest  the  ashes  of  twenty-two 
thousand  Japanese  soldiers.  There  groups  of 
Japanese  may  be  seen  paying  reverence  to  the 
spirits  of  the  dead.  As  they  bow  before  that 
shrine  they  are  reverencing,  not  only  the  spirits 
of  their  heroes,  but  the  spirit  of  their  nation. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  JAPANESE   HAND 

IN  the  old  pictures  of  Japan  the  artists  were 
even  more  deeply  concerned  with  the  enduring 
beauty  of  form  and  foliage  than  with  the  brief 
and  fleeting  bloom  which  touches  the  landscape 
with  a  loveliness  almost  visionary  in  its  fragile 
charm,  and  then  dissolves  like  a  luminous  cloud 
and  vanishes  into  thin  air.  On  the  screens  in  the 
temples  and  palaces  one  sees  everywhere  the 
shapes  and  colors  which  in  all  seasons  dominate 
the  landscape  and  have  become  the  symbols  of 
Japan  —  the  pine  and  the  bamboo.  The  ex- 
quisite sensitiveness  of  the  Japanese  artist  is 
matter  of  universal  knowledge ;  it  is  susceptible 
of  faithful  reproduction  and  has  been  reported 
by  prints  and  photographs  without  number; 
but  the  vitality  with  which  the  pine  and  bamboo 
are  painted,  the  living  energy  of  stroke  and  line, 

190 


THE  JAPANESE  HAND  191 

elude  all  attempts  to  report  them.  It  is  easy  to 
record  the  form  of  things,  even  when  the  form 
bears  the  touch  of  the  ultimate  perfection  of  work- 
manship ;  but  the  life  of  the  work  of  art  is  as 
mysterious  and  elusive  as  the  life  which  flows 
from  Nature  herself,  and  the  most  skillful  repro- 
duction cannot  convey  it. 

The  genius  of  the  Japanese  artist  is  most  ap- 
parent when  he  is  dealing  with  conventionalized 
forms,  and  the  old  life  of  Japan  in  all  its  aspects 
was  rigidly  conventional.  The  relentless  and 
searching  discipline  to  which  the  older  artists 
were  subjected,  and  which  put  them  in  command 
of  the  grammar  of  art  before  they  began  to  speak 
through  it,  had  much  to  do  with  their  ease  and 
freshness  within  the  limitations  imposed  upon 
them  by  tradition;  but  they  were  saved  from 
barren  imitation,  from  mechanical  repetition,  by 
their  artistic  genius;  for  genius  is  always  free 
however  few  may  be  its  tools  and  however  limited 
its  materials,  because  it  is  always  the  energy  of 
personality. 

The  Japanese  hand  is  one  of  the  most  signifi- 


192    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

cant  facts  in  Japan ;  it  explains  many  things 
which  are  characteristic  of  the  country ;  it  is 
both  a  history  and  a  prophecy.  It  has  been 
shaped  by  a  national  habit,  and  it  is  the  sen- 
sitive tool  of  a  race  brain.  Like  the  dyer's 
hand;  which  Shakespeare  found  significant,  it 
shows  what  the  Japanese  have  been  doing  for 
many  centuries.  It  is  as  unlike  the  big,  poten- 
tial, unlined  hand  of  the  untrained  races  as  the 
faces  of  rudimentary  peoples  are  unlike  the  faces 
of  highly  cultivated  peoples. 

The  Japanese  hand  has  been  shaped  by  ancient 
industry,  by  the  use  of  weapons,  and  by  the  dis- 
cipline of  art ;  it  is  sinewy,  flexible,  sensitive. 
To  the  casual  onlooker  the  art  of  self-defense, 
which  the  Japanese  call  jiu-jitsu,  seems  like  a 
rather  confusing  system  of  bodily  movements ; 
it  is,  in  reality,  the  working  out  of  an  idea,  of  a 
series  of  carefully  devised  movements  to  render 
an  enemy  helpless. 

The  jiu-jitsu  training  does  not  begin  with 
the  arms  and  legs ;  it  begins  with  the  brain, 
and  rests  on  psychology.  It  is  an  esoteric  art, 


THE  JAPANESE   HAND  193 

and  its  successful  practice  depends  on  the  action 
of  the  brain  quite  as  much  as  on  the  action  of 
the  muscles.  It  is  a  skill  of  the  mind  rather 
than  of  the  body. 

It  is  one  of  the  various  expressions  of  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  Japanese  with  which  those  who 
would  like  to  understand  them  and  those  who 
must  compete  with  them  would  do  well  to  see 
clearly :  the  endeavor  to  set  skill  against  force 
and  intelligence  against  mass.  That  part  of  the 
world  which  uses  its  eyes  discovered  this  secret 
of  Japanese  efficiency  during  the  war  with  Russia ; 
that  part  of  the  world  which  does  not  use  its  eyes 
and  learns  only  through  experience  will  discover 
this  characteristic  as  the  scope  of  Japanese 
activity  widens  in  the  world.  The  Japanese  are 
dangerous  competitors,  because  they  have  a 
passion  for  work  and  because  their  hands  and 
brains  are  on  intimate  terms. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  rank  of  a  man  or  of  a 
race  in  civilization  is  measured  by  its  application 
of  ideas  to  life ;  which  is  another  way  of  saying 
that  the  further  a  race  advances  in  general  devel- 


194    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

opment  the  more  does  it  match  its  brain  against 
its  body  and  put  intelligence  in  place  of  force 
and  habit.  If  this  is  a  true  measure  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  Japanese  have  gone  far,  for  they  are 
deliberately  bringing  intelligence  to  their  aid  in 
dealing  with  limited  resources.  Germany  has 
been  giving  the  modern  world  a  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  immense  service  of  education  in  devel- 
oping the  resources  of  a  nation,  of  the  great  advan- 
tages in  competition  of  the  industries  which  have 
taken  science  into  partnership. 

Japan  has  learned  much  from  Germany,  but 
she  has  one  gift  which  has  been  denied  the  Ger- 
mans —  she  has  the  artist's  hand.  In  the  divi- 
sion of  gifts  and  aptitudes  which  make  all 
countries  contributors  to  the  work  and  life  of  the 
world  the  light  hand  has  gone  to  the  Japanese. 
They  seem  to  be  born  with  the  brush  in  their  hands  ; 
they  not  only  paint  with  it,  they  write  with  it. 
In  Japan,  as  in  China  and  Korea,  calligraphy  is 
not  only  a  medium  of  communication,  it  is  an 
art.  Beautiful  examples  of  chirography  are  shown 
side  by  side  with  beautiful  pictures. 


THE  JAPANESE  HAND  195 

When  he  is  dealing  with  foreign  models  and 
methods,  the  Japanese  often  goes  woefully  astray, 
and  his  blunders  in  using  foreign  architecture 
and  decoration  show  how  definitely  his  artistic 
instinct  rests  on  knowledge,  and  how  great  a 
place  education  has  had  in  giving  his  hand  pre- 
cision, sureness,  a  lightness  of  judgment,  and  a 
sensitiveness  to  weight,  which  have  long  since 
passed  into  flesh  and  bone. 

For  when  he  is  dealing  with  the  materials  and 
forms  with  which  he  is  familiar,  the  Japanese  has 
almost  unerring  taste  and  skill.  He  uses  wood 
as  the  Greeks  used  marble ;  and  gives  its  perish- 
ability, so  to  speak,  the  imperishable  touch. 
Some  of  the  temples,  whose  great  columns  have 
the  massiveness  of  stone,  convey  the  sense  of 
space,  of  majesty  of  structure,  of  the  cathedrals ; 
there  are  temples  in  Kyoto  which  have  the  golden 
vastness  of  St.  Mark's. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  the  artist  in  Japan 
has  worked  on  smaller  surfaces,  with  fewer 
materials.  He  has  so  charged  small  things  with 
genius  that  they  have  taken  on  greatness ;  he 


196    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

has  so  well  learned  the  art  of  vitalizing  details 
that,  like  the  scientist,  he  can  convey  the  whole 
tree  from  a  leaf  or  a  branch.  He  gets  the  effect 
of  mass  without  invoking  magnitude,  and  puts 
skill  in  the  place  of  force.  In  studying  the  artistic 
expression  of  Japanese  life  in  its  entirety,  one  is 
continually  reminded  of  the  Greek  maxim  that 
divine  things  go  on  light  feet,  and  recalls  the 
happy  phrase  which  is  a  good  definition  of  art : 
"The  full  weight  of  thought  without  any  weight 
of  expression." 

Nowrhere  has  art  more  to  say  of  the  genius  of  a 
people  than  in  Japan ;  nowhere  is  its  significance 
as  a  language  of  the  spirit  more  obvious.  Not 
since  the  eloquent  marbles  of  the  Greeks  passed 
from  the  open  air  into  the  museums  have  things 
fashioned  with  the  hands  had  more  to  say  for  a 
people  and  about  a  people  than  in  Japan.  In 
many  countries  art  has  been  the  language  of  the 
cultivated ;  in  Japan  it  has  been  the  vernacular. 
Those  who  could  not  speak  it  understood  it. 
It  was  not  an  accomplishment,  a  dexterity  ac- 
quired by  practice.  Its  development  of  form  was 


THE  JAPANESE  HAND  197 

largely  influenced  from  without,  but  the  native 
aptitude,  the  vigilant  and  victorious  patience, 
the  sense  of  color,  mass,  relations,  have  their 
sources  in  the  Japanese  mind  and  heart. 

The  arts  of  China  and  Korea  have  left  their 
impress  on  Japan  as  the  art  of  Greece  left  its 
impress  on  the  Italy  of  the  Renaissance,  and  that, 
in  turn,  imparted  its  impulse  to  Europe  and 
America.  There  has  been  no  absolutely  original 
art  since  the  first  forms  were  shaped  and  the  first 
colors  mixed  in  prehistoric  times ;  there  has  been 
a  long  progression  as  original  in  its  points  of 
departure,  its  fresh  perceptions  of  higher  uses, 
its  free  handling  of  old  materials,  as  the  earliest 
ventures  of  primitive  craftsmen.  Japan  owes 
much  to  other  countries ;  an  indebtedness  which 
she  shares  with  the  rest  of  the  world ;  but  what 
she  has  taken  she  has  made  her  own  by  individual 
skill  and  by  insight  into  the  potentialities  of  its 
beauty  and  use.  Even  a  casual  acquaintance 
with  the  pottery  of  Japan  as  it  is  shown  in  the 
Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  makes  one  aware 
of  the  general  diffusion  of  taste  and  skill  among 


19S    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  people ;  the  subsoil  of  artistic  feeling,  so  to 
speak,  under  the  art  activity  of  the  country.  The 
test  of  the  presence  of  that  feeling  among  a  people 
is  not  the  appearance  of  a  group  of  artists  of  genius, 
but  the  touch  of  beauty  on  common  things ; 
the  familiar  uses  of  beauty  in  homely  ways  and 
in  daily  occupations. 

It  is  of  the  very  essence  of  art  that  it  should 
suggest  the  whole  in  the  part,  and  that  under  its 
hand  detail  should  gain  the  dignity  and  significance 
of  the  whole.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  best 
Japanese  art ;  its  power  lies  not  in  what  it  says 
but  in  what  it  suggests.  The  slender  bamboo 
bending  in  the  wind,  the  adventurous  pine  leaning 
over  the  sea,  have  the  vital  energy  which  carries 
the  imagination  into  wide  landscapes.  The  great 
mass  of  Fuji  is  always  in  the  background  even 
when  but  a  faint  line  indicates  its  presence,  or 
when  it  is  invisible. 

In  his  gardens  the  Japanese  artist  shows  his  skill 
in  making  detail  do  the  work  of  mass.  The  area 
of  the  garden  is  often  very  small,  but  the  sense 
of  space  is  rarely  missing.  The  grouping  of  trees 


THE  JAPANESE  HAND  199 

and  shrubs,  the  massing  of  flowers,  the  softening 
of  hard  surfaces  by  water,  the  winding  walks  of 
stones,  conceal  boundaries  and  borrow  space 
from  the  landscape  and  sky.  In  a  Japanese 
garden  in  the  heart  of  a  city  there  is  a  delicious 
sense  of  seclusion,  of  remoteness  from  ugly  and 
noisy  things  which  may  be  within  a  stone's  throw. 
The  little  garden,  with  its  feeling  of  detachment 
and  isolation  in  crowded  populations,  of  peace  in 
the  center  of  movement,  of  freedom  of  range  within 
very  narrow  bounds,  is  a  triumph  of  skill  over 
limitation. 

These  miniature  gardens  with  their  tiny  trees, 
ponds,  bridges,  and  walks  have  all  the  charm 
of  nature ;  they  seem  like  real  landscape  reduced 
in  scale.  The  trees  are  not  dwarfed ;  they  give 
no  impression  of  nature  interfered  with  and  out- 
raged ;  they  are  perfect  in  form  and  line,  as  if 
nature  were  playing  with  children. 

There  is  a  parable  in  this  game  of  skill  which  the 
Japanese  play  with  obstinate  materials  and  fixed 
limits.  If  art  has  the  power  of  suggesting  the 
whole  in  the  detail,  it  has  also  the  power  of  lessen- 


200    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

ing  the  weight  of  mass  by  dissolving  it,  so  to  speak, 
in  beauty  of  detail,  of  imparting  to  the  oppressive 
burden  of  stone  the  relief  of  tender  line  and  gentle 
molding.  The  spirit  of  the  Western  world  is 
likely  to  be  crushed  under  appalling  piles  of 
masonry  unless  art  puts  its  shoulders  under  these 
great  burdens  and  carries  them  without  stress 
or  strain. 

The  Japanese  have  learned  the  secret  of  setting 
skill  against  force,  of  invoking  art  to  create  space, 
of  giving  perishable  things  the  permanency  of 
beauty.  The  Western  world,  which  needs  im- 
mense structures,  may  find  in  art  deliverance 
from  the  tyranny  of  mass,  and  redeem  the  hard 
surfaces  of  the  architecture  for  business  purposes 
by  giving  the  architect  the  freedom  of  the  artist. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THEATERS  AND   PLAYS 

IN  Japan  the  theater  is  not  the  pastime  of  the 
leisure  class;  it  is  a  very  democratic  form  of 
amusement.  The  exterior  of  the  playhouse  is  gay 
with  flags  and  brilliantly  colored  announcements 
which  to  the  foreigner  convey  no  news,  but  con- 
tribute to  the  festive  decoration.  The  "theater 
street"  is  a  mass  of  waving,  floating,  streaming 
color  —  a  kind  of  glorified  Coney  Island.  Tea 
houses  and  moving-picture  shows  in  which  Ameri- 
can life  is  portrayed  in  "scare  lines,"  as  in  our 
yellow  journals,  flank  the  playhouse  or  playhouses, 
and  the  street  is  full  of  curious  people  from  the 
country,  eager  to  see  what  the  gay  city  has  to  offer 
them.  One  would  like  to  know  what  impressions 
of  America  are  carried  to  remote  farmhouses  from 
the  pictorial  representations  of  dashing  cowboys 
firing  promiscuous  revolvers,  sheriffs  in  antique 

201 


202    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

suits  of  rusty  black  or  arrayed  like  picturesque 
cutthroats,  hairbreadth  adventures  with  stolen 
locomotives  and  airships,  and  love  scenes  of 
the  free-and-easy  kind  in  which  rigid  propri- 
ety is  humanized  by  careless  disregard  of  con- 
ventions. 

The  gay  exterior  of  the  theater  belies  its  inward 
solemnity,  for  tragedy  is  popular,  and  tragedy 
on  a  Japanese  stage  has  no  pity  for  the  emotions ; 
it  spares  no  detail  of  horror.  People  whose 
stoicism  calms  them  in  the  face  of  danger  and 
whose  cheerfulness  survives  earthquakes  and  tidal 
waves  seem  to  find  in  the  tragedy  both  occasion 
and  justification  for  tears.  Declamation  is  as 
characteristic  of  the  Japanese  as  of  the  French 
stage,  and  in  Japan  is  even  more  a  matter  of 
convention  than  in  France. 

The  theater  is  a  spacious  building  and  provides 
for  the  comfort  of  its  patrons  during  the  time,  long 
or  short,  of  the  performance.  The  space  which 
we  call  the  orchestra  is  filled  with  little  compart- 
ments, matted  and  separated  from  one  another 
by  low  partitions,  a  foot  or  more  in  height.  In 


THEATERS  AND   PLAYS  203 

these  boxes  are  families  or  parties  of  friends, 
sitting,  of  course,  on  the  floor.  The  hibachi,  or 
fire-box;  in  the  center  contributes  a  little  heat 
during  the  months  when,  to  a  foreigner,  a  Japanese 
theater  is  a  decorated  ice-box,  and  enables  the 
party  to  cheer  itself  with  many  cups  of  tea ; 
luncheon  is  brought  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
between  the  acts  there  is  much  sociability  and 
merriment.  In  its  way  the  Japanese  theater  is  as 
rational  and  comfortable  a  place  of  entertainment 
as  a  provincial  German  theater.  It  is  a  place  of 
friendly  amusement,  inexpensive  and  informal ; 
it  is  not  a  setting  for  a  social  function.  There  is  a 
gallery,  also  divided  into  boxes,  with  a  few  cheaper 
seats  at  the  rear.  Here  the  foreigner  who  finds 
sitting  on  the  floor  impossible  is  provided  with  a 
chair. 

The  audience,  like  the  audiences  in  Shake- 
speare's time,  is  spared  the  infliction  of  what  the 
managers  call  music.  The  plays  are  often  effect- 
ively though  not  lavishly  staged ;  and  the  stage 
is  reenforced,  so  to  speak,  by  two  long,  narrow 
passages  that  run  on  either  side  of  the  audience 


204    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

to  the  back  of  the  house  and  serve  as  extensions  of 
the  stage  when,  at  some  critical  point,  the  play 
demands  a  rescue.  The  sound  of  two  pieces  of 
wood  struck  together,  like  the  three  strokes  in 
the  French  theater,  is  followed  by  the  withdrawal 
of  the  curtain  and  the  disclosure  of  a  second  curtain 
on  which  the  name  of  the  chief  actor  appears. 
In  the  days  of  the  older  drama,  as  in  the  early 
English  theater,  women  did  not  appear  on  the 
stage,  and  the  playwriters  drew  their  materials 
largely  from  history  and  tradition,  as  did  Shake- 
speare and  his  contemporaries.  The  manner  was 
serious  and  the  plot  was  often  gruesome ;  the  dis- 
tinction between  tragedy  and  melodrama  was 
practically  obliterated.  The  virtues  of  self-denial 
and  self-sacrifice,  the  sense  of  honor  which,  al- 
though highly  conventionalized,  often  led  to  tragic 
heights,  furnished  abundant  dramatic  material. 
Whoever  has  seen  on  the  Japanese  stage  the 
struggle  in  a  Samurai's  breast  between  his  passion- 
ate affections  and  his  absolute  loyalty  to  his 
feudal  lord  has  seen  the  tragic  power  of  the 
older  Japanese  drama. 


THEATERS  AND   PLAYS  205 

The  playwriters  of  to-day,  like  the  story- 
writers,  are  making  serious,  though  not  always 
successful,  attempts  to  dramatize  contemporary 
life  and  manners.  The  plays  often  deal  with 
motives  and  situations  developed  or  created  by 
conditions  which  are  so  peculiar  to  Japan  that  the 
foreigner  is  not  in  a  position  to  compare  the  Japa- 
nese actors  with  actors  in  other  countries.  On 
the  stage,  however,  the  stoical  immobility  which 
foreign  observers  think  they  find  in  many  faces 
as  the  result  of  centuries  of  schooling  in  self -repres- 
sion gives  place  to  a  mobility  of  feature  which 
reminds  one  of  the  little  masks  in  which  Japanese 
humor  delights ;  while  the  vivacity  of  action 
suggests  the  Latin  temperament  and  tradition. 
The  Japanese  actor  plays  with  his  features  and 
makes  incredible  combinations  with  them. 
Foreign  plays  are  becoming  more  familiar  to 
Japanese  audiences  and  there  is  a  growing  interest 
in  Shakespeare. 

Convention  rules  supreme  in  the  "No"  plays, 
the  dramas  of  the  aristocratic  class  as  the  plays 
in  the  theater  are  the  recreation  and  delight  of  the 


206    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

masses.  These  plays,  which  are  as  characteristic 
of  old  Japan  as  the  Greek  tragedies  were  character- 
istic of  Athens,  seem  at  first  so  remote  from 
modern  interests  and  habits  that  they  are  almost 
unintelligible  to  the  foreigner. 

He  gets  no  help  from  the  rigidly  conventional 
rules  to  which  the  acting  conforms.  More  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  texts  of  Xo  plays  have 
been  preserved,  and  a  little  study  of  the  few 
translations  that  have  appeared  explains  their 
appeal  to  the  Japanese  imagination  and  reveals 
their  poetic  and  human  quality.  They  are  essen- 
tially lyrical,  and  have  more  in  common  with  the 
operas  than  with  the  plays  of  the  Western  stage. 
Those  whose  familiarity  with  Japanese  literature 
gives  their  opinion  authority  regard  the  poetry 
of  Japan  as  the  most  original  and  characteristic 
art  of  the  Japanese,  the  most  distinctive  expression 
of  their  genius.  The  No  dramas  were  written 
before  the  sixteenth  century  and  antedate  the 
Shakespearean  age  in  England ;  many  of  them 
were  contemporary  with  Chaucer.  After  six 
hundred  years  they  arc  the  most  elaborate  poetic 
form  which  Japan  has  produced. 


THEATERS  AND   PLAYS  207 

The  theaters  in  which  these  plays  are  given  are 
smaller  than  other  theaters  and  of  a  different 
construction.  They  are  much  more  like  the  thea- 
ters which  Shakespeare  knew  than  the  theaters 
of  to-day.  The  stage  is  square  and  is  projected 
into  the  auditorium,  so  that  the  spectators  sit 
on  three  sides  of  it,  as  they  did  in  the  sixteenth- 
century  theaters  in  London ;  but  the  platform  is 
reserved  entirely  for  the  actors.  It  is  covered 
by  a  curved  roof  supported  by  columns  of  beauti- 
fully grained  wood.  There  is  a  space  between 
the  stage  and  the  audience  which  is  open  to  the 
sky ;  the  platform  on  which  the  play  is  presented 
is  smooth  and  resonant,  and  the  actor  stamps 
from  time  to  time  in  a  way  which  seems  to  have 
no  relation  to  the  play  and  yet  is  not  without  sig- 
nificance. The  No  is  imbedded  so  deep  in  Japa- 
nese tradition  and  habit  that  a  foreigner  can  hardly 
hope  to  get  more  than  an  outline  impression  of 
the  meaning  it  has  for  a  native  audience ;  a 
meaning  which  is  conveyed  largely  by  suggestion. 
The  vigorous  stamping,  which  seems  entirely  irrele- 
vant, is  one  of  the  oldest  survivals  in  the  No,  and 


208    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

recalls  a  story  as  famous  in  Japanese  mythology 
as  the  story  of  Idun  in  the  Norse  mythology,  and 
very  like  it  in  significance. 

The  Sun-Goddess,  Amaterasu,  angry  at  an 
affront  put  upon  her  by  her  mischievous  brother, 
hid  herself  in  a  cave  and  left  the  world  in  darkness. 
The  gods  tried,  by  various  devices,  to  induce  her 
to  return ;  but  their  efforts  were  unsuccessful 
until  one  of  them  invented  a  dance  which  was 
executed  over  a  great  inverted  cask.  The  unusual 
sounds  produced  awoke  the  curiosity  of  the 
offended  deity,  and  she  came  out  of  the  cave, 
bringing  light  and  joy  with  her.  This  tale  uses 
the  motive  of  the  story  of  Pandora's  box,  but 
reverses  the  sequel.  It  is  the  hollow  sound  of 
this  symbolic  dancing  which  the  audience  hears 
when  the  actors  stamp  with  what  seems  to  be 
meaningless  vigor. 

This  very  simple  feature  of  the  No  is  significant 
of  the  play  and  its  hold  on  the  Japanese  imagina- 
tion ;  it  is  like  a  bit  of  drama  played  at  the  front 
of  a  vast  stage,  the  stage  of  Japanese  history. 
It  is  an  incident  which  recalls  and  expresses  the 


THEATERS  AND  PLAYS  209 

spirit  of  a  civilization.  It  is  incrusted,  so  to 
speak,  with  a  mass  of  associations,  and  through 
it,  as  through  a  window,  the  audience  looks  out 
on  a  vast  landscape.  It  creates  an  illusion  in  an 
audience  which  brings  to  its  rich  suggestiveness 
the  knowledge  that  builds  the  music  from  the 
keynote,  and  surrenders  itself  with  delight  and 
is  held  spellbound,  and  often  deeply  moved,  by 
acting  which  seems  to  the  onlooker  monotonous 
and  artificial.  The  Japanese  sees  the  play  in 
focus;  the  foreigner  sees  it  without  perspective. 
The  words,  the  acting,  and  the  music  are  alike 
alien  to  us ;  to  the  Japanese  they  are  as  a  mother 
tongue.  Through  the  most  intelligent  translation 
one  gets  but  a  blurred  impression  of  a  form  of 
art  intensely  individual  and  characteristic  of  a 
different  civilization. 

The  stage  on  which  these  plays  are  presented 
is  uncurtained  and  is  approached  by  a  passageway 
leading  from  the  greenroom  on  the  left  of  the  stage, 
which  is  shut  off  by  a  curtain.  At  regular  dis- 
tances along  this  passage  three  pine  trees  are 
placed,  and  a  conventionalized  pine  tree  is  painted 


210    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

on  the  wall  at  the  back  of  the  stage.  The  wood  of 
which  the  stage  is  built  is  unpainted  and  unstained, 
and  is  beautifully  polished. 

The  actors  approach  the  stage  with  slow  and 
measured  steps,  pausing  at  each  of  the  three  pine 
trees.  There  is  practically  no  action,  but  every 
motion  has  a  meaning  and  is  unalterably  fixed 
by  ancient  and  rigid  convention.  Motion,  either 
of  the  body  or  of  the  hands,  is  the  chief  medium 
of  expression,  and  motion  is  confined  within  very 
narrow  limits.  There  are  no  women  on  the  stage, 
and  the  men  who  take  the  feminine  parts  wear 
masks  of  a  strictly  conventional  form :  the 
aristocratic  type  of  face  frozen,  so  to  speak,  into 
immobility.  These  masks,  seen  in  museums, 
present  a  narrow,  white  face,  with  eyebrows 
painted  on  the  middle  of  the  forehead.  No  en- 
deavor is  made  to  conceal  the  artificiality  of  the 
expressionless  face ;  on  the  contrary,  the  ribbons 
which  attach  it  arc  often  distinctly  visible. 

The  beauty  of  the  stage  is  entirely  in  the  har- 
mony of  tones  of  wood ;  the  pine  trees  are  the 
only  decorations ;  there  is  no  scenery.  The 


THEATERS  AND  PLAYS  211 

setting  of  the  play  is  even  more  bare  of  effects 
which  catch  the  eye  than  was  the  stage  which 
Shakespeare  knew;  and,  like  that  stage,  scenic 
backgrounds  are  supplied  by  descriptions,  often 
of  exquisite  beauty.  Japanese  art  of  almost  all 
kinds  assumes  intelligence  and  sympathy  in  those 
to  whom  it  appeals ;  the  complete  effect  is  secured 
by  cooperation.  The  artist  makes  the  suggestion, 
and  the  imagination  of  the  auditor  or  student 
fills  in  the  outlines.  The  fan  is  in  constant  use 
in  the  No  play,  and  in  every  position  it  is  really 
part  of  the  text ;  the  audience  understands 
every  motion  as  readily  as  Mr.  Jefferson's  audi- 
ences used  to  understand  Rip  Van  Winkle's  score 
on  the  shutter  of  the  tavern.  It  may  express  a 
great  emotion  or  it  may  be  used  as  a  cup  to 
convey  water  from  a  stream  to  one  who  needs  it. 

The  actors  are  gorgeously  costumed  in  harmony 
with  the  roles  they  assume.  The  plays  are  old, 
and  the  costumes  are  contemporaneous  with 
them  and  have  the  richness  of  the  feudal  age. 
They  are  voluminous,  and  the  heavy  materials 
of  which  they  are  made,  with  embroidery  or 


212    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

brocades,  would  make  violent  action  impossible 
if  convention  permitted  it. 

The  No  play  suggests  both  the  Elizabethan 
and  the  Greek  play,  and  at  many  points  reminds 
one  that  the  human  mind  in  all  ages  obeys  the 
same  laws  and  develops  along  kindred,  if  not 
identical,  lines.  On  the  No  stage  the  chorus 
plays  very  much  the  same  role  that  it  did  on  the 
Greek  stage.  Before  the  play  begins  the  chorus 
comes  in  and  sits  on  the  right  of  the  stage.  The 
men  are  robed  in  low  tones  of  blue  and  gray, 
and  the  impassive  figures,  for  the  most  part 
motionless,  contribute  to  the  color  scheme,  which 
is  artistic  and  restful.  While  the  members  of 
the  chorus  are  silent  their  fans  lie  before  them, 
closed ;  when  they  sing,  the  fans  are  raised  to 
an  upright  position.  As  in  the  Greek  plays,  the 
chorus  are  intermediaries  between  the  actors 
and  the  audience,  reporting  events  which  are 
taking  place,  commenting  on  the  actors,  interpret- 
ing their  emotions,  advising  them  what  to  do  or 
to  avoid  doing. 

The  No  plays  are  Court  operas,  but  to  the 


THEATERS  AND   PLAYS  213 

foreign  auditor  the  music  is  as  perplexing  as  the 
language.  There  are  those  who  declare  that  no 
Japanese  art  is  more  characteristic  and  impressive 
than  their  music ;  there  are  others  who  hold  that 
music  in  Japan  is  an  art  that  was  arrested  in  the 
early  stages  of  its  development  and  remains  in  a 
primitive  condition.  The  experts  must  decide 
the  matter ;  to  the  non-expert  a  good  deal  of  the 
singing  is  unintelligible  from  the  standpoint  of 
language  or  of  music,  and  there  are  outcries  which 
to  Western  ears  seem  like  the  survivals  of  afar-off 
barbarism.  On  the  other  hand,  striking  effects 
are  produced  when  the  biwa  is  used  to  accompany 
the  singing  or  chanting  of  some  old  tale  of  feudal 
times. 

The  musicians  in  the  No  play  use  four  instru- 
ments :  three  different  kinds  of  drums  and  a  flute. 
The  monotony  of  the  drums  is  broken  by  sudden 
notes  of  the  flute,  and  the  players  break  their  vocal 
silence  from  time  to  time  with  sharp  cries  which 
are  in  the  last  degree  discordant.  The  singing 
voice  seems  curiously  and  artificially  produced 
by  an  alarming  distention  of  the  throat  and 


214    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

suppression  of  breathing.  It  must  be  added  that 
the  music,  strange  and  inharmonious  as  it  sounds, 
is  a  product  of  the  age  which  created  the  plays,  and 
is  an  integral  part  of  them. 

The  No  plays  are  given  in  theaters  built  for 
the  purpose  in  Tokyo,  Kyoto,  and  a  few  other 
places,  and  are  followed  with  deep  interest  by 
very  intelligent  audiences,  who  not  only  under- 
stand the  allusions  imbedded  in  the  text,  but  know 
how  every  movement  should  be  made  and  every 
syllable  should  be  inflected  or  intoned.  The 
audience  is  not  limited  to  people  of  rank,  wealth, 
and  leisure;  the  reorganization  of  society  in 
Japan  has  drawn  many  representatives  of  the 
older  classes  into  the  masses,  and  men  of  very 
lowly  occupation  often  show  traces  of  inherited 
refinement  of  manner  and  taste. 

The  plays  are  seldom  more  than  one  hour 
long,  but  they  are  presented  in  groups,  and  a 
performance  which  begins  at  nine  in  the  morning 
holds  an  audience  in  the  matted  compartments 
until  three  or  four  in  the  afternoon.  The  little 
charcoal  fires  take  the  chill  out  of  the  air  and  give 


THEATERS  AND  PLAYS  215 

the  auditorium  a  friendly  atmosphere ;  between 
the  plays  luncheons  are  eaten,  tea  is  made,  and 
there  is  a  cheerful  hum  of  talk.  The  contrast 
between  the  stateliness  of  the  stage  and  the 
pleasant  domesticity  of  the  theater  is  dramatic. 

The  play  itself  is  lacking  in  dramatic  construc- 
tion and  the  interest  which  comes  from  action  and 
climax ;  it  is  more  like  a  story  told  in  high  relief 
than  in  terms  of  dramatic  movement  and  sequence. 
There  may  be  only  two  or  three  actors ;  there  are 
rarely  more  than  six.  The  chief  character  is  usually 
on  a  journey  in  search  of  some  person  or  to  keep 
a  vow  or  to  perform  a  duty,  and  the  journey  takes 
the  audience  to  some  famous  locality,  which  is 
described  at  great  length.  Ghosts  and  priests 
haunt  the  stage  and  there  is  more  or  less  moralizing 
about  filial  obedience,  duty,  the  uncertainty  and 
brevity  of  life,  and  the  need  of  the  stoical  or 
religious  philosophy  which  makes  one  superior 
to  the  mutations  of  fortune  and  the  accidents  of 
condition. 

In  her  admirable  book  on  "The  No"  Miss 
Marie  C.  Stopes,  with  the  aid  of  Dr.  Sakurai's 


216    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

scholarship  and  literary  skill,  presents  translations 
of  three  of  these  plays  which  may  be  taken  as 
representative.  In  one,  "The  Maiden's  Tomb," 
Unai,  a  young  girl,  is  loved  by  two  men  of  equal 
gifts,  and  on  the  same  day  receives  from  both 
letters  declaring  their  devotion.  Unable  to  decide 
between  them,  and  fearing  the  resentment  of 
the  rejected  suitor,  her  father  declares  that  she 
shall  marry  the  better  marksman.  This,  un- 
fortunately, adds  to  the  maiden's  perplexity ; 
for  the  arrows  of  the  rivals  pierce  the  same  wing 
of  the  same  bird  —  a  mandarin  duck,  whose 
fidelity  to  its  mate  is  a  synonym  for  devotion  in 
Japan.  The  tragic  ending  of  the  trial  of  skill  so 
oppresses  the  girl  that  she  drowns  herself ;  and 
the  rivals,  overcome  with  remorse  and  grief, 
kill  each  other  at  her  tomb.  This  somber  tale 
is  told  by  the  ghost  of  the  girl  to  a  priest  on  his 
way  to  the  capital.  It  is  early  spring,  and  the 
village  girls  are  gathering  herbs.  The  ghost,  in 
the  form  of  a  young  girl,  mingles  with  them,  and 
after  they  have  gone  tells  her  pathetic  story  to 
the  priest.  Why  a  girl  whose  only  offense  was 


THEATERS  AND  PLAYS  217 

her  loveliness  should  suffer  torment  is  not  ex- 
plained, and  the  comfort  which  the  priest  offers 
has  about  as  much  cheer  in  it  as  a  small  charcoal 
fire  in  a  great  room  on  a  winter's  day : 

"If  only  thou  wouldst  once  but  cast  away 
The  clouds  of  thy  delusions,  thou  wouldst  be 
Freed  from  thy  many  sins  and  from  all  ills." 

Many  prose  passages  weigh  down  the  poetic 
diction  in  these  plays,  and  much  of  the  poetry 
is  prosaic;  while  the  perplexity  is  deepened 
by  the  use  of  such  artificial  verbal  devices  as 
"pivot  words"  —  words  of  "two  significations — • 
which  serve  as  species  of  hinges  on  which  two 
doors  turn,  so  that  while  the  first  part  of  the 
poetical  phrase  has  no  logical  end,  the  latter  part 
has  no  logical  beginning.  They  run  into  each 
other,  and  the  sentences  could  not  possibly  be 
construed."  To  this  discouraging  statement,  how- 
ever, Mr.  Chamberlain,  one  of  the  highest  authori- 
ties on  things  Japanese,  adds  that  these  "linked 
verses"  pass  before  the  reader  "like  a  series  of 
dissolving  views,  vague,  graceful,  and  suggestive." 

With  the  naivete   of   Chaucer  they  combine 


218    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

something  of  the  mystical,  subtle,  rhythmical 
quality  of  the  Symbolists.  Their  complexities 
are  as  puzzling  to  an  Occidental  as  the  intricacies 
of  "go,"  which  is  a  kind  of  Oriental  fugue  on  the 
Western  game  of  draughts  raised  to  the  nth  power. 
There  are,  however,  shining  lines  in  these  old 
plays  and  bits  of  description  so  happy  in  their 
freshness  that  they  bring  joy  even  to  those  into 
whose  speech  the  play  in  its  entirety  may  be 
transposed  but  cannot  be  translated.  There 
are  charming  passages  in  Mr.  Aston's  "  Japanese 
Literature" : 

"On  the  four  seas 
Still  are  the  waves ; 
The  world  is  at  peace. 
Soft  blow  the  time-winds, 
Rustling  not  the  branches. 
In  such  an  age 
Blest  are  the  very  firs, 
In  that  they  meet 
To  grow  old  together." 

In  "The  No"  these  exquisite  lines  are  quoted: 

"The  waters  flow,  the  flowers  fall,  forever  lasts  the 
spring. 


THEATERS  AND   PLAYS  219 

The  moon  shines  cold,  the  wind  blows  high,  the  cranes 

do  not  fly  home. 
The  flowers  that  grow  in  the  rocks  are  scarlet,  and 

light  up  the  stream. 
The  trees  that  grow  by  the  caverns  are  green  and 

contain  the  breeze. 
The  blossoms  open  like  brocade,  the  brimming  pools 

are  deep  and  blue." 

In  the  "Robes  of  Feathers"  these  lines,  chanted 
by  the  chorus,  are  very  freely  rendered  into 
English  verse : 

" Dance  on,  sweet  maiden,  through  the  happy  hours! 
Dance  on,  sweet  maiden,  while  the  magic  flow'rs 
Crowning  thy  tresses  flutter  in  the  wind 
Rais'd  by  thy  waving  pinions  intertwin'd  ! 
Dance  on  !  for  ne'er  to  mortal  dance  'tis  giv'n 
To  vie  with  that  sweet  dance  thou  bring'st  from  heav'n  : 
And  when,  cloud-soaring,  thou  shalt  all  too  soon 
Homeward  return  to  the  full-shining  moon, 
Then  hear  our  pray'rs,  and  from  thy  bounteous  hand 
Pour  sev'nfold  treasures  on  our  happy  land ; 
Bless  ev'ry  coast,  refresh  each  panting  field, 
That  earth  may  still  her  proper  increase  yield  !" 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PILGRIMS   AND   SHRINES 

THE  Japanese  often  tell  you  that  they  are  not 
a  religious  people ;  and  in  a  certain  sense  this  is 
true.  They  are  certainly  not  a  "  God-intoxicated  " 
people,  like  the  Hindus,  from  whom  they  received 
Buddhism  and  the  profound  philosophy  and  cul- 
ture which  came  with  it  and  which  have  deeply 
influenced  their  life  and  thought.  Never  wholly 
indifferent  to  the  speculative  attitude  of  Buddhism, 
the  Japanese  have  been  more  critical  and  practical 
than  the  Hindus.  The  modifications  of  doctrine 
and  practice  which  Buddhism  has  undergone  in 
Japan  have  been  significant  expressions  of  the 
Japanese  mind  and  spirit ;  they  have  been  in  the 
direction  of  simplification.  The  ills  and  burdens 
of  life  have  not  rested  so  heavily  on  the  active 
Japanese  temperament ;  while  the  Japanese  have 
not  feared  death,  life  has  not  seemed  undesirable. 

220 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  221 

There  have  been  little  anxiety  to  escape  from  the 
"wheel  of  life,"  great  interest  in  grappling  coura- 
geously with  the  difficulties  of  existence,  and  less 
eagerness  to  elude  them.  The  vast  plains  of 
India  have  given  the  Indian  imagination  a  sober 
coloring  and  fostered  a  meditative  or  brooding 
habit  of  mind ;  the  island  climate  and  the  environ- 
ing variety  and  beauty  of  the  sea,  while  they 
have  evoked  an  undertone  of  sadness  in  the 
Japanese  mind,  have  stimulated  the  love  of  action, 
awakened  the  spirit  of  mutual  aid,  and  invigorated 
the  will.  The  foreigner  who  studies  Japan  finds 
that,  except  in  the  use  of  the  hand,  the  Japanese 
have  less  facility  than  he  expected,  and  greater 
ability ;  they  learn  less  easily  and  more  thoroughly. 
In  the  end  Japan  becomes  to  him  an  incarnation 
of  will,  and  presents,  in  that  respect,  a  dramatic 
contrast  to  India. 

People  of  the  West  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking 
of  the  Far  East  as  the  home  of  races  of  homogene- 
ous civilization,  and  of  the  Orientals  as  men  of  a 
single  type.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  differences 
between  the  Eastern  peoples  are  as  great  as  those 


222    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

between  the  Western  races ;  as  great,  for  instance, 
as  the  differences  between  the  Italians  and  the 
Finns.  India  is  a  geographical  term,  and  carries 
with  it  none  of  the  implications  of  race  unity  and 
race  consciousness  which  enrich  the  words  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Germany,  and  make  them  sig- 
nificant of  concentrated  energy  and  power. 

Immense  significance  attaches  to  the  fact 
that  Japan  is  the  one  thoroughly  organized  country 
in  the  Far  East.  Indeed,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Germany, 
Japan  is  the  most  thoroughly  organized  country 
in  the  modern  world.  If  this  had  not  been  true, 
the  extraordinary  readjustment  of  the  nation  in 
all  departments  of  its  life  during  the  last  sixty 
years  would  have  been  impossible.  A  highly 
centralized  government  and  a  disciplined  people 
have  made  possible  a  marvelous  unity  of  purpose 
and  of  action  ;  and  Japan  has  brought  to  her  task 
the  concentration  and  steady  persistence  of  a 
powerful  personality. 

In  national  as  in  individual  experience  there 
are  none  of  those  brilliant  accidents  which  seem 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  223 

to  be  miraculous ;  the  great  achievement  is  always 
rooted  in  the  miracle  of  growth  under  law.  Behind 
modern  Japan  is  the  old  Japan  of  rigid  discipline 
and  trained  obedience,  the  Japan  of  the  resolute 
will.  The  emphasis  of  interest  and  endeavor  has 
rested,  not  on  meditation  as  the  method  of  solving 
the  problem  of  existence,  but  on  courageous  action ; 
not  on  individual  escape  from  the  burdens  or 
ills  of  life  by  asceticism,  but  on  the  subordination 
of  the  individual  to  the  State  impersonated  by  the 
feudal  chief  or  the  Shogun  or  the  Emperor. 

It  has  become  a  convention  to  describe  Ameri- 
cans as  practical  and  caring  supremely  for  money. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  not  only  sensitive  to 
appeals  of  sentiment,  but  are  subject  to  sudden 
moods  of  emotion  in  which  material  interests  are 
thrown  to  the  winds.  The  Japanese  are  reported 
to  the  world,  and  are  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of 
themselves,  as  intensely  practical.  For  nearly 
two  generations  they  have  concentrated  their 
energy  on  practical  problems ;  but  they  are  pri- 
marily both  an  artistic  and  a  sentimental  people 
-  when  honor  is  involved  nothing  else  counts  with 


224    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

them;    not  only  money  but  life  and  death  are 
matters  of  supreme  indifference. 

They  are  active  by  temperament,  they  are 
peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  appeal  of  sentiment, 
and  these  facts  must  be  taken  into  account  in  any 
endeavor  to  determine  the  influence  of  religion  in 
their  life.  They  have  not  been  given  to  specula- 
tion on  the  ultimate  problems  of  existence,  nor 
have  they  formulated  elaborate  creeds ;  but  re- 
ligion has  been  as  much  a  part  of  the  daily  habit 
of  life  among  them  as  among  the  Italians ;  it 
has  been  inwrought  in  their  history,  organized 
in  their  institutions,  and  practiced  in  every 
family.  Their  traditions  declare  that  they  are 
descended,  not  from  demigods,  but  from  gods ; 
their  Emperor  is  the  Son  of  Heaven ;  the  shrine 
of  the  Imperial  Ancestors  is  not  only  the  most 
sacred  place  in  Japan,  but  has  been  the  very 
heart  of  the  national  system ;  temples  and  shrines 
are  almost  numberless  throughout  the  Empire ; 
one  is  hardly  ever  beyond  the  sound  of  the  deep- 
toned  bells  in  the  temple  grounds ;  and  there  was 
an  altar  in  every  home  in  old  Japan.  So  far  as 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  225 

outward  conformity  to  religious  observance  is 
concerned,  the  Japanese  have  been  a  very  religious 
people ;  but  in  the  sense  of  being  saturated,  so  to 
speak,  with  religious  feeling  and  absorbed  in 
religious  contemplation,  they  have  not  been 
religious.  Religion  has  been  as  much  a  matter 
of  state  ritual  as  of  private  experience. 

In  the  cities  and  villages,  hidden  among  the  hills, 
one  is  always  coming  on  shrines  and  temples  — 
many  of  them  simple  to  the  point  of  bareness, 
some  of  them  splendid  in  design  and  decoration. 
Many  of  the  people  are  Buddhists ;  all  are  Shin- 
toists.  There  is  no  collision  of  creed  between  the 
two  faiths.  Shinto  is  now  restored  to  something 
of  its  primitive  simplicity,  but  there  was  a  time 
when  Buddhism  had  almost  taken  possession  of 
its  temples  and  worship.  It  never  was  a  religion, 
strictly  speaking,  but  it  was  anchored  deep  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  and  enough  nature  worship 
was  added  by  the  priests  to  satisfy  worshipers 
who  craved  concrete  images  and  richer  altar 
furnishings  than  a  simple  mirror.  One  did  not 
need  to  go  far  in  old  Japan  to  find  a  friendly  god ; 


226    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Buddhism  was  brought  down  from  the  clouds  and 
humanized  to  meet  daily  needs,  and  Amida, 
"  Lord  of  measureless  light  and  life,"  opened  a  way, 
through  faith,  to  paradise.  There  were  hosts  of 
local  deities,  and  ever}''  little  village  had  its  patron 
or  neighborhood  deity ;  while  the  Rice-god  and 
the  Fox-god  are  always  accessible  to  rustic  wor- 
shipers. 

There  were  also  shrines  of  national  interest  in 
Japan  and  temples  of  great  reputation ;  and  the 
Japanese,  although  shut  in  upon  themselves  for 
two  hundred  and  sixty  years,  have  always  had 
the  mental  alertness  which  humble  rustic  people 
in  most  countries  lack,  and  the  curiosity  about 
the  world  which  goes  with  it  and  fills  people  with  a 
desire  to  travel.  They  are,  moreover,  nature 
lovers  and  avail  themselves  of  every  opportunity 
to  enjoy  themselves  out  of  doors.  In  cherry- 
blossom  time  the  whole  country  is  en  fete,  and  a 
contagious  intoxication  of  joy  in  the  world  is  in 
the  air.  Religion  has  taken  on  a  picnic  form  and 
has  become  associated  with  the  pleasures  as  well 
as  the  pains  of  life.  This  has  been  especially  true 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  227 

of  Shinto,  which  has  made  faith  in  immortality  a 
working  creed ;  men  worship  the  living,  not  the 
dead;  and  ancestor  worship  necessarily  involves 
the  existence  of  ancestors  who,  although  invisible, 
are  still  alive  in  the  same  sense  in  which  their 
worshipers  are  alive;  their  conditions  have 
changed,  but  life  goes  on  without  interruption. 
"We  say  and  think  that  we  believe  in  death," 
writes  Okakura,  "but  all  the  while  this  so-called 
death  is  nothing  else  than  a  new  life  in  this  present 
world  of  ours  led  in  a  supernatural  way."  He 
illustrates  what  this  has  meant  in  practice  by  tell- 
ing us  that  when  the  father  of  a  family  begins  a  long 
journey  the  part  of  his  room  that  is  raised  above 
the  level  of  the  floor  becomes  sacred  to  his  memory 
until  his  return ;  each  day  the  members  of  the 
family  gather  in  front  of  it  and  express  their  love 
in  words  and  gifts.  During  the  terrible  war  with 
Russia,  when  hundreds  of  thousands  of  families 
were  represented  in  the  field,  there  was  no  house  in 
Japan  in  which  some  mother,  wife,  or  sister  was 
not  practicing  this  simple  and  tender  rite  of 
remembrance  for  the  son  or  husband  or  brother  in 


228    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

peril.  And  if  he  died,  there  was  no  change  of 
mental  attitude  towards  him ;  he  had  only  gone  on 
a  longer  journey  from  which  he  would  not  return. 
He  was  still  in  the  world,  but  he  was  no  longer 
visible,  and  daily  reverences  and  offerings  were 
made  to  him  as  before. 

On  Kudan  Hill  in  Tokyo  there  is  a  great  shrine 
dedicated  to  those  who  have  died  in  defense  of 
their  countiy.  Their  names  are  inscribed  on 
long  rolls  hung  on  the  walls,  and  Dr.  Nitobe 
tells  us  that  one  may  hear  widows  teaching  their 
children  that  their  father's  spirit  dwells  there, 
though  invisible.  "Look  well !  He  is  there. 
Do  you  not  see  him?"  Here,  surely,  is  a  very 
simple  but  wonderfully  impressive  recognition  of 
that  invisible  world  in  which  all  active  religion 
lives ;  and  whatever  may  be  the  fact  to-day, 
yesterday  this  sense  of  immortality  was  universal. 

^Tiile  for  the  people  at  large  Buddhism  has  been 
associated  with  death  until  the  recent  revival 
of  Buddhistic  activity,  Shinto  has  been  the  com- 
panion of  joy ;  for  generations  children  have 
played  in  the  sunny  spaces  before  the  shrines, 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  229 

and  village  festivals  have  marked  the  months 
and  years,  and  gayety  and  laughter  have  made 
sacred  places  familiar  and  happy. 

For  many  generations  pilgrims  have  been 
familiar  figures  in  Japan  and  the  pilgrimage  a 
kind  of  national  habit.  In  former  times  appren- 
tices ran  away  on  pilgrimages,  were  helped  on  the 
way  by  friendly  shelter  and  food,  and  were  for- 
given when  they  returned.  Whatever  inconven- 
ience their  unexpected  absences  caused  was 
canceled  by  their  piety;  the  religious  end  justi- 
fied the  unbusinesslike  means. 

But  the  Japanese  are  a  social  people  and  make 
their  pilgrimages  in  company.  In  the  streets 
and  spacious  temple  grounds  of  Kyoto  one  meets 
groups  of  country  people  carrying  flags  and  going 
from  shrine  to  shrine.  They  have  come  from 
villages  and  hamlets  all  over  the  country.  In  the 
summer,  when  work  on  the  farm  slackens  and  the 
thoughts  of  the  peasant  farmers  turn  to  recreation, 
they  arrange  pilgrimages  as  American  farmers 
plan  visits  to  relatives  and  friends,  excursions  to 
the  State  capital,  to  Washington,  or  to  more 


230    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

distant  points.  The  love  of  travel  is  not  less 
ardent  in  Japan  than  in  this  country,  but  it  is  less 
ambitious,  and  there  is  less  money  to  spend.  The 
religious  motive  is  more  obvious  and  general  than 
here ;  but  travel  and  religion  are  not  dissociated 
in  this  country,  as  the  almost  numberless  conven- 
tions, conferences,  and  meetings,  attended  by 
hosts  of  people,  show.  The  modern  American 
pilgrim  discards  the  old-time  discipline  of  the 
pilgrimage ;  he  does  not  travel  to  mortify  or 
discipline  the  spirit ;  he  goes  to  some  distant 
gathering  to  gain  the  warmth  of  fellowship,  to 
recover  a  waning  enthusiasm,  to  reinvigorate  his 
spirit  of  devotion.  He  also  goes  because  he  expects 
to  have  " a  good  time." 

The  pilgrim  in  Japan  is  impelled  by  the  same 
motives,  plus  the  appeal  of  patriotism.  Many 
of  the  places  to  which  he  goes  are  not  only  sacred 
but  historical.  Japan  is  a  small  country  with  a 
long  history,  and  legends,  traditions,  and  heroic  or 
dramatic  incidents  add  human  interest  to  almost 
every  locality  in  the  country.  There  are  certain 
stories  which  live  in  the  hearts  of  the  nation  and 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  231 

are  part  of  the  education  of  every  child,  and  the 
places  where  these  stories  are  localized,  so  to 
speak,  draw  pilgrims  in  endless  procession.  The 
graves  of  the  Forty-seven  Ronin  in  the  little 
ground  of  the  Temple  in  Tokyo  and  the  great 
shrine  of  the  Imperial  Ancestors  at  Ise  have  been 
lodestars  for  generations.  The  shrine  on  Monu- 
ment Hill  at  Port  Arthur,  under  which  rests  the 
ashes  of  twenty-two  thousand  Japanese  soldiers, 
is  already  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  and  there  are 
few  more  impressive  places  in  the  world.  The 
man  who  does  not  instinctively  pay  his  reverence 
to  the  heroic  dead  there  must  be  lacking  not  only 
in  religious  feeling  but  in  normal  human  impulse. 
In  the  mind  of  the  Japanese  pilgrims  religion, 
patriotism,  the  love  of  travel,  and  the  picnic 
spirit  all  find  place,  and  no  scales  are  delicate 
enough  to  weigh  them  one  against  the  other. 
The  pilgrimages  from  the  small  communities 
are  made  up  of  those  who  go  at  their  own  charges 
or  of  those  who  have  been  chosen  as  representa- 
tives of  the  localities  which  send  them  to  offer  a 
collective  worship,  the  expense  of  these  semi- 


232    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

official  pilgrims  being  paid  by  the  villages  which 
they  represent.  The  pilgrims  are  poor,  frugal, 
and  self-denying,  and  their  expenses  are  almost 
invisible  to  the  naked  American  eye.  Living  out 
of  doors  in  inclement  weather  is  no  hardship 
to  people  accustomed  to  working  in  the  rice 
fields.  They  are  lightly  dressed  in  tight-fitting 
cotton  trousers  and  shirts,  with  a  loose  jacket, 
often  caught  in  a  girdle.  They  wear  broad- 
brimmed  hats  of  coarse  straw,  and  their  feet  are 
protected  by  straw  sandals ;  they  carry  staves  of 
wood,  and  a  bell  is  usually  attached  to  the  girdle ; 
their  light  luggage  is  divided  into  two  bundles, 
one  carried  on  the  back  in  a  small  piece  of  matting 
on  which  they  sleep  at  night.  One  of  the  company 
carries  a  flag  on  which  appears  the  name  of  the 
province  or  locality  from  which  they  came.  They 
do  not  scruple  to  use  the  railways,  on  which  third- 
class  fares  are  very  low ;  but  they  are  accustomed 
to  walk,  and  they  make  long  journeys  on  foot  with 
moderate  fatigue  and  much  pleasure  by  the  way. 
They  climb  mountains  and  repeat  their  prayers  at 
lonely  shrines ;  even  Fuji,  which  has  an  altitude 


PILGRIMS  AND   SHRINES  233 

of  more  than  twelve  thousand  feet,  does  not  daunt 
them,  and  to  worship  at  the  little  shrine  beside 
the  apparently  extinct  crater  gives  a  kind  of  satis- 
faction which  going  to  the  Holy  Land  gave  the 
pilgrims  of  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century 
in  Europe.  At  Nikko,  Nara,  Kyoto,  and  Ise,  the 
ancient  centers  of  religion,  they  may  be  found  in 
crowds.  In  some  remote  and  lonely  places  shelters 
are  provided  for  them,  while  in  towns  or  around 
the  older  temples  small,  inexpensive  inns  are 
ready  to  receive  them.  So  are  hosts  of  little  shops, 
and  at  festival  seasons  long  lines  of  out-of-door 
stalls  display  photographs,  postal  cards,  souvenirs, 
and  trinkets.  Many  of  these  are  catchpenny 
devices ;  for  in  Japan,  as  in  all  parts  of  Christen- 
dom, the  worldly-wise  turn  piety  to  account 
for  business  purposes,  and  sinners  prey  on  saints. 
The  devotions  of  the  pilgrims  are  brief ;  and,  if 
the  shrine  is  old  and  historic,  when  their  prayers 
are  ended  they  are  promptly  taken  in  hand  by  an 
attendant,  who  intones  the  story  of  the  place  as 
monotonously  as  if  he  were  a  guide  in  an  English 
cathedral,  but  with  much  more  vocal  energy. 


234    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Recitation  in  Japan  has  very  little  in  common  with 
the  normal  use  of  the  voice ;  it  shows  skill  in 
voice  production,  but  it  is  too  artificial  to  please 
the  Western  ear.  The  auditors  listen  intently, 
and  what  they  cannot  accept  as  fact  they  receive 
as  legend,  for  they  have  not  reached  the  barren 
stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  critical  temper  in 
which  nothing  counts  except  facts ;  they  are  still 
philosophical  enough  to  know  that  there  is  often 
far  greater  truth  in  some  legends  than  in  many 
facts. 

The  little  traveling  parties  are  very  social, 
much  given  to  friendly  talk,  and  never  long  sepa- 
rated from  their  small  pipes,  which  yield  only  a 
few  whiffs  and  then  go  out ;  demanding  a  more 
patient  attention  than  the  restless  Occidental 
would  give  to  any  pleasure.  They  are  largely 
independent  even  of  the  little,  inexpensive  inns 
which  keep  open  house  for  them. 

Kara,  which  was  the  capital  of  Japan  during  a 
period  notable  for  the  culture  of  the  arts  and  of 
manners,  is  a  park  filled  with  temples  and  with 
thousands  of  stone  lanterns,  with  great  trees  and 


The  Great  Buddha 


PILGRIMS  AND  SHRINES  235 

wandering  deer ;  it  has  what  may  be  called  a  town 
attachment,  but  it  is  itself  a  great  park  to  which 
pilgrims  come  from  all  parts  of  the  Empire.  On 
the  third  day  of  February  water  is  taken  from  the 
sacred  well,  and  a  torch  race  through  a  long  gallery 
brings  together  a  host  of  pilgrims.  The  runners 
wear  thin  white  garments  and  seem  to  carry  their 
torches  with  reckless  disregard  of  danger;  but 
accidents  never  happen,  because  they  are  miracu- 
lously protected  from  fire  !  A  large  temple  with  an 
unusually  difficult  name,  approached  by  a  long 
flight  of  stone  steps,  is  lifted  high  against  the 
crest  of  the  hill,  and  on  the  festal  night  it  is  a  lu- 
minous mass  of  lanterns.  The  scene  on  that  night 
is  a  page  torn  out  of  the  "Arabian  Nights."  The 
long  slope,  heavily  overhung  by  ancient  trees, 
is  crowded  with  people  seated  in  little  groups  and 
wonderfully  picturesque  in  the  high  light  and 
dark  shadows  of  lanterns  above  and  around  them. 
They  sit  on  the  ground,  chatting,  and  drinking 
tea  and  eating  a  frugal  picnic  supper.  All  Japan 
is  there  ;  it  is  a  kind  of  national  picnic.  However 
much  or  little  the  miraculous  efficiency  of  the 


236    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

sacred  water  appeals  to  them,  the  occasion  is  full 
of  simple  pleasure  for  them. 

For  centuries  the  pilgrimage  has  been  a  vacation, 
a  means  of  popular  education,  and  a  social  habit 
in  Japan.  The  student  of  the  Far  East  discovers 
that  most  devices  which  he  has  been  taught  to 
believe  are  Western  inventions  have  been  in  use 
in  the  Orient  for  hundreds  of  years,  including 
warming  pans,  chafing  dishes,  revolving  book- 
cases, and  exchange  professorships.  The  vacation 
excursion  was  old  in  Japan  centuries  before  regular 
roads  were  built  in  England  and  the  daring  experi- 
ment of  running  regular  lines  of  stages  inaugu- 
rated ;  and  peasant  farmers  were  picking  up  all 
kinds  of  information  which  could  be  turned  to 
account  at  home.  For  the  Japanese,  unlike  his 
Hindu  neighbor,  but  very  like  his  English  and 
American  brother,  does  not  separate  the  business 
of  religion  from  the  business  of  living. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

COUNT  OKUMA 

IN  repose  Count  Okuma's  face  seems  immobile 
and  of  a  type  not  uncommon  in  Japan  among 
elderly  men  of  wide  experience  and  high  standing. 
It  is  full  of  strength,  with  a  suggestion,  not  of 
sadness,  but  of  great  sobriety  of  feeling,  the  feeling 
which  is  distilled  out  of  a  large  knowledge  of  life. 
If  Orientalism  means  passivity,  acceptance,  the 
fatalism  which  teaches  a  man  to  bear  his  fate 
rather  than  to  shape  it,  Count  Okuma's  face  is 
not  Oriental.  Nor,  for  that  matter,  are  typical 
faces  anywhere  in  Japan.  There  are  Oriental 
traits  in  the  Japanese  character  and  Oriental 
ways  of  thinking  in  the  Japanese  mind ;  but  not 
even  Holland  has  shaped  itself  and  fashioned  its 
fortunes  more  definitely  than  has  Japan.  It 
represents  as  distinctly  as  Germany  or  England 
or  the  United  States  the  active  will,  the  mind 

237 


238    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

which  projects  itself  on  external  conditions  and 
modifies  or  reconstructs  them.  The  Japanese 
mind  shows  no  trace  of  that  Oriental  sluggishness 
which  the  West  has  agreed  to  regard  as  charac- 
teristic of  the  East ;  although  it  may  appear  later 
that  this  languor  was  the  reaction  of  the  first 
long-sustained  effort  of  the  race  to  realize  its  possi- 
bilities of  development.  Whether  temperamental 
or  temporary,  it  was  never  characteristic  of  a 
people  who  were  intensely  alive  even  when  they 
were  shut  off  from  the  wrorld  in  an  enforced  seclu- 
sion. The  tea  ceremony,  which  was  a  social 
ritual  in  old  Japan,  was  a  skillful  device  to  quiet  a 
people  wrhose  mind  and  nerves  were  dangerously 
active. 

Count  Okuma  is  a  man  of  the  old  order  with  a 
modern  mind ;  he  is  not  only  without  fear  of 
radical  changes,  he  has  always  welcomed  them. 
He  is  halfway  through  his  seventh  decade  ;  but  his 
years  seem  to  have  brought  him  accumulated 
impulse  rather  than  depletion  of  intellectual  force. 
He  says  frankly  that  he  intends  to  live  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five  years,  and  he  has  intimated  his 


COUNT  OKUMA  239 

expectation  of  attending  the  funerals  of  some 
of  his  contemporaries  of  reactionary  tendencies ; 
and  when  one  talks  with  him  it  is  easy  to  take  him 
at  his  word.  For  his  face  becomes  wonderfully 
animated  and  expressive  and  his  eyes  are  keen 
with  vitality.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the 
delight  with  which  he  is  always  heard  on  the  plat- 
form. He  is  a  master  of  the  art  of  being  intimate 
with  his  audience  —  which  is  the  secret,  not  of 
political  oratory,  but  of  the  highest  quality  of 
public  speaking.  His  personality  flows  through 
his  words  and  gestures,  his  eye  glows  with  life, 
every  faculty  is  brought  into  action,  and  his 
audience  ripples  with  applause  and  laughter. 
The  moment  he  begins  to  speak  it  surrenders  itself 
to  sheer  enjoyment,  for  no  man  understands 
his  countrymen  better,  nor  has  a  larger  command 
of  the  resources  of  that  language  of  the  hour  which 
is  not  simply  a  matter  of  words,  but  of  common 
knowledge  of  the  mood  of  the  moment,  of  feelings 
which  lie  near  the  surface.  He  knows  to  a  nicety 
how  to  temper  seriousness  with  humor,  logic  with 
irony,  fact  with  sentiment.  So  vital  is  Count 


240    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Okuma's  temperament,  so  animated  and  expressive 
is  his  personality,  that  it  is  a  delight  to  hear  him 
speak  even  if  one  does  not  understand  a  word 
he  says.  It  used  to  be  said  that  men  waited 
in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  hear 
the  tones  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  voice  even  when 
his  words  were  indistinguishable.  What  may 
be  called  the  vibration  of  a  great  personality  gave 
them  a  moving  quality ;  something  of  this  quality 
flows  through  Count  Okuma's  speech. 

He  was  born  in  the  south,  though  he  belongs 
neither  to  Satsuma  nor  Chosu,  the  two  powerful 
clans  which  have  given  modern  Japan  so  many 
able  leaders  in  the  army  and  navy  and  in  civil 
administration.  It  is  a  conviction  of  the  Japanese 
that  able  men  are  born  of  able  mothers.  Count 
Okuma's  mother  was  a  woman  of  notable  charac- 
ter and  intellect,  and  one  of  the  finest  traits  of  his 
nature  has  been  his  passionate  devotion  to  her 
and  to  her  memory.  He  was  fifteen  years  old 
when  Commodore  Perry  forced  his  friendly  way 
into  Japan  and  gave  an  outward  impulse  to  an 
inward  movement  which  had  been  quietly  gather- 


COUNT  OKUMA  241 

ing  momentum  in  the  country.  His  father  was  in 
command  of  fortifications  about  Nagasaki.  The 
drama  of  modern  Japan  has  been  completely  un- 
folded under  the  eyes  of  Count  Okuma,  and  he  has 
lived  with  the  country  during  the  entire  period 
of  its  transformation. 

His  preparation  for  this  radical  change  lay  in 
his  spirit  rather  than  in  his  education ;  for  he  was 
brought  up  in  the  old  way.  He  studied  the 
Chinese  classics  as  Japanese  schoolboys  had  done 
since  the  eighth  century ;  an  education  which  was 
definitely  literary,  though  the  Japanese  genius 
and  temperament  greatly  modified  it. 

But  an  education  which  cramped  men  of  imita- 
tive mind  did  not  hamper  a  man  of  original 
mind ;  moreover,  there  was  in  the  Chinese  classics 
much  that  was  liberating,  and  the  revival  of  inter- 
est in  these  ancient  writings  had  inaugurated  a 
new  epoch  in  Japan  before  Commodore  Perry 
opened  the  doors  to  Western  science  and  to 
material  activity.  In  the  air  of  the  new  age 
Count  Okuma,  who  has  never  been  abroad  and  has 
been  too  busy  to  learn  a  foreign  language,  held  his 


242    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

mind  open  and  saw  early  and  clearly  the  readjust- 
ment of  institutions,  laws,  and  social  life  through 
which  Japan  must  pass  if  she  was  to  find  her  place 
in  the  modern  world  and  keep  her  national  integ- 
rity. Bred  in  the  customs  of  old  Japan,  Count 
Okuma  is  a  modern  man  in  his  openness  of  mind, 
his  readiness  to  rest  in  the  stability  of  the  law  of 
progress  rather  than  in  immobility  of  institutions. 
He  is  a  born  Progressive ;  for  Progressivism  is 
not  a  matter  of  to-day  or  to-morrow ;  it  is  a  view  of 
life  as  old  as  the  first  man  who  looked  forward 
rather  than  backward  and  who  saw  that  life  and 
movement  are  inseparable. 

Count  Okuma  has  had  a  large  place  in  the  public 
life  of  Japan.  He  has  been  Prime  Minister, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Minister  of  Finance, 
and  he  is  now,  for  the  second  time,  Prime  Minister ; 
but  he  has  been  a  man  of  ideas  rather  than  an 
administrator,  a  popular  leader  rather  than  a 
successful  politician.  He  has  always  spoken  his 
mind  with  great  frankness,  as  he  speaks  it  to-day, 
and  he  has  never  practiced  the  traditional  reticence 
of  the  Oriental  statesman ;  a  man  of  strong 


Count  Okuma,  the  Prime  Minister 


COUNT  OKUMA  243 

popular  instincts  and  of  the  democratic  temper, 
he  has  been  frank  and  outspoken  to  a  degree  which 
has  been  unusual  in  the  East,  and  not  always 
politic.  This  quality,  and  the  instinctive  feeling 
that  he  is  sympathetic  with  the  aspirations  of 
the  people,  have  made  him  at  times  the  most 
popular  man  in  Japan,  while  his  frankness  in 
criticism  of  popular  tendencies  has  made  him  at 
times  the  most  unpopular  man  in  the  country. 
One  secret  of  his  strength  lies  in  his  apparent  in- 
difference to  the  attitude  of  the  moment ;  he  is 
the  friend,  not  the  servant,  of  his  people. 

Years  ago,  during  one  of  his  periods  of  un- 
popularit}^  a  bomb  was  thrown  into  his  carriage, 
and  he  wras  so  seriously  injured  that  his  life  was 
saved  only  by  the  amputation  of  a  leg.  After 
the  death  of  the  assassin,  wrho  committed  suicide 
-  so  the  story  runs  —  flowers  were  placed  on  his 
grave  on  those  days  when  the  Japanese  specially 
remember  their  dead ;  and  the  suspicion  that  the 
bomb-thrower  might  have  belonged  to  a  group  of 
anarchists  led  to  surveillance  and  to  the  discovery 
that  the  flowers  were  placed  on  the  grave  by  the 


244    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

man  whom  the  assassin  had  attempted  to  kill, 
and  who  feared  that  others  might  be  deterred 
from  paying  him  the  usual  respect  dear  to  Japanese 
traditions. 

Count  Okuma  has  the  love  of  flowers  and  trees 
which  make  Japan  one  of  the  three  most  beautiful 
countries  in  the  world,  and  his  gardens  are  a 
source  of  delight  to  him,  as  they  are  to  the  guests 
whom  he  so  hospitably  welcomes.  There  are 
two  houses  in  his  ample  grounds  —  a  foreign 
house  and  a  Japanese  house.  He  works  and 
entertains  in  one  house  and  lives  in  the  other. 
To  the  stranger  from  the  West  there  is  no  more 
hospitable  house  than  his,  nor  is  there  a  more 
interesting  personality  in  the  Far  East.  Japan 
is  often  described  as  a  kind  of  middle  term  between 
the  East  and  West ;  and  perhaps  as  much  as  any 
one  in  the  country  Count  Okuma  incarnates  that 
idea  and  fulfills  that  function.  His  roots  are 
in  the  soil  of  the  East,  but  he  lives  in  the  modern 
world  as  naturally  as  if  he  had  been  born  in  the 
farthest  West.  He  is  one  of  those  large-minded 
men  now  appearing  in  all  nations  who  share  what 


COUNT  OKUMA  245 

Dr.  Butler  has  happily  called  the  "international 
mind,"  who  are  the  interpreters  of  race  to  race, 
and  who  are  destined  to  play  a  great  part  on  the 
stage  of  the  modern  world.  It  was  highly  charac- 
teristic of  him,  when  all  Japan  was  deeply  stirred 
by  the  anti-Japanese  legislation  in  California,  to 
call  a  conference  of  American  missionaries  and 
Japanese  Christians  and  others  at  his  house,  and 
in  a  brief  and  very  impressive  address  tell  them 
that  such  differences  can  be  finally  settled  neither 
by  law  nor  by  diplomacy,  but  by  religion.  It 
seemed  to  many  like  a  counsel  of  perfection 
beyond  the  reach  of  a  generation  still  blinded  by 
ignorance  and  race  prejudice ;  but  those  who 
faced  the  fundamental  issue  knew  that  it  was 
that  simple  truth  which  is  the  practical  wisdom 
of  to-morrow. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


A  JAPANESE   PRIME   MINISTER   ON  JAPAN1 


THE  most  obvious  fact  about  modern  Japan  is  its 
newness.  Of  course  there  are  other  new  countries, 
America  being  the  foremost ;  Germany  as  an 
empire  is  new,  and  Italy  as  a  kingdom  is  new. 
But  Japan  is  new  in  a  deeper  sense ;  the  changes 
here  have  been  more  radical.  In  the  West 
newness  means  some  form  of  renewal  in  a  new 
birth.  In  politics,  art  and  society  there  are 
differences  between  the  peoples  of  Teutonic  and 
the  peoples  of  Latin  blood,  but  these  differences 
are  comparatively  superficial ;  all  these  peoples 
have  drunk  at  the  same  wells ;  they  have  felt  the 
influence  of  Greek  and  Roman  civilization,  of 
medieval  thought  and  of  Christianity.  There 
are  differences  among  these  peoples,  but  the  dif-~ 

XA  conversation  stenographically  reported  and  re- 
vised by  Count  Okuma. 

246 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         247 

ferences  are  not  radical.  Japan,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  felt  the  influence  of  China  and  India, 
and  has  developed  social  and  political  institutions 
fundamentally  divergent  from  those  of  the  West, 
so  that  Japan  is  new  in  a  sense  in  which  Germany 
and  Italy  are  not  new.  Of  course  there  were  at  one 
time  or  another  new  countries  in  the  East  as  well 
as  in  the  West ;  the  empires  of  Genghis  Khan,  of 
the  Ottoman  and  of  the  Mogul,  were  once  new. 
We  are  prone  to  regard  the  recent  rise  of  Japan 
in  the  same  light  as  that  of  these  Eastern  empires, 
but  there  is  a  radical  difference  that  must  not  be 
overlooked.  These  Asiatic  empires  were  created 
as  the  result  of  the  ascendency  of  one  man ;  Japan 
has  risen  as  a  nation.  The  other  Asiatic  empires 
rose  by  force  from  within,  broke  the  bands  which 
linked  them,  and,  like  a  great  accumulation  of 
water,  broke  the  dam  and  deluged  the  countries 
they  conquered.  Japan  lived  in  an  isolation  not 
without  its  good  effects,  for  the  Japanese  lived  a 
happy,  undisturbed,  artistic  life ;  what  finally 
awoke  it  from  its  long  repose  was  not  the  rise  of 
one  man  or  of  many  men,  but  an  impulse  which 


248    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

came  from  without,  first  from  America  and  then 
from  other  nations.  The  impetus  which  created 
a  new  nation  came  largely  from  without. 

Since  the  first  breaking  away  from  the  ancient 
policy  of  seclusion  sixty  years  ago  Japan  has  gone 
through  three  transformations  of  ideas  and  institu- 
tions, and  the  reconstruction  has  shown  itself  in 
three  different  ways  :  and  it  has  now  entered  upon 
a  fourth  period  of  transformation.  In  the  first 
period  the  Japanese  people  broke  away  from  their 
old  customs,  radically  changed  their  political 
organization,  and  created  the  united  empire.  In 
the  second  period  they  were  engaged  in  making  the 
modern  state,  both  internally  and  in  its  external 
relations  with  foreign  powers ;  the  latter  process 
involving  the  abolition  of  exterritoriality  and  the 
gaining  of  tariff  autonomy.  The  objections  to 
both  these  changes  strongly  held  by  the  foreign 
powers  were  reasonable,  for  at  that  time  the  laws 
of  Japan  had  not  been  codified  and  were  not 
known  to  foreigners.  In  this  period  social  and 
administrative  reforms  were  rapidly  carried  out, 
and  the  abolition  by  treaty  of  exterritoriality 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         249 

and  the  gaining  of  the  power  to  make  her  own 
tariff  laws  secured  the  perfect  independence  of 
the  country  in  1893. 

The  third  period  was  marked  by  two  wars  very 
closely  related,  for  the  war  with  Russia  was  the 
logical  consequence  of  the  war  with  China.  These 
wars  greatly  widened  the  mental  horizon  of  Japan, 
and  tested  its  military  and  diplomatic  ability. 
Ages  had  passed  since  the  country  had  been  at 
war,  and  these  two  wars  revealed  its  strength 
and  gave  it  self-consciousness. 

Long  before  the  opening  of  the  country,  in 
fact  during  the  entire  Middle  Age,  the  Japanese 
people  were  kindly  disposed  towards  foreigners 
at  a  time  when  the  authorities  were  pursuing  the 
policy  of  isolation  and  of  antagonism.  When 
Commodore  Perry  came,  anti-foreign  feeling  sud- 
denly grew  very  strong,  and  throughout  the 
entire  country  sentiment  was  antagonistic  to  any 
intercourse  with  foreign  peoples.  Patriotism  then 
took  a  new  form ;  devotion  to  Japan  meant  reso- 
lute antagonism  to  foreigners.  This  anti-foreign 
feeling  had  been  fostered  by  the  Dutch,  who  had 


250    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

long  been  in  commercial  relations  with  the  Japa- 
nese ;  in  order  to  keep  the  Japanese  market  to 
themselves  the  Dutch  spread  many  evil  reports 
about  other  Western  countries,  declaring  that  if 
these  countries  brought  religion  to  Japan  it  was 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  political  power,  and  if 
they  endeavored  to  foster  commerce  it  was  to 
take  wealth  out  of  the  country.  When  Commo- 
dore Perry  came,  the  Japanese  people  remembered 
these  stories  and  regarded  his  coming  as  another 
attempt  to  make  an  entrance  into  the  country 
for  selfish  purposes.  Townsend  Harris,  fortu- 
nately, was  the  type  of  man  who  disarmed 
suspicion ;  the  Japanese  Government  found  him 
sincerely  friendly.  They  discovered  that  he  was 
both  frank  and  generous,  that  America  had  no 
predatory  purpose ;  the  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment at  that  time  were  well  informed  about 
foreign  matters,  and  the  advisers  of  the  Shogun 
who  was  then  ruling,  as  a  result  of  this  knowledge, 
saw  no  danger  in  opening  the  country  for  foreign 
intercourse,  but  great  danger  in  any  attempt 
to  carry  still  further  the  old  policy  of  seclusion. 


PRIME   MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         251 

The  Daimyos  were  not  well  informed  about 
external  sentiment  and  harbored  suspicion  of 
foreigners,  and  joined  the  Emperor  —  then  only 
nominally  ruling  —  in  an  attempt  to  prevent 
foreign  intercourse.  The  Shogun  Government 
favored  the  abandonment  of  the  old  policy  and 
the  opening  of  Japan  to  the  world.  Both  parties 
were  right  and  both  were  wrong.  The  Shogun 
party  was  right  in  advocating  opening  the  country, 
but  its  policy  was  based  on  a  feudalism  which 
violated  the  best  tradition  of  the  nation,  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Emperor. 
The  Emperor's  party  was  wrong  in  its  endeavor 
to  continue  the  policy  of  exclusion,  but  right 
in  holding  that  the  supreme  power  in  Japan  rested 
in  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  and  not  in  those  of 
his  delegate,  the  Shogun.  The  result  of  the 
struggle  politically  was  the  fall  of  the  Shogun 
and  of  feudalism,  but  his  policy  of  opening  the 
country  to  foreign  intercourse  survived  his  fall. 
The  Emperor's  party  was  mistaken  in  upholding 
the  policy  of  seclusion,  but  right  in  its  policy  of 
concentrating  its  influence  on  securing  the  resto- 


252    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

ration  of  power  to  the  Emperor.  This  meant  not 
only  the  opening  of  Japan  to  the  world  but  the 
unification  of  Japan. 

The  leaders  of  the  new  regime  saw  immediately 
that  these  two  principles  or  policies  were  in  accord- 
ance with  world  programs  and  in  harmony  with 
world  tendencies  which  Japan  could  not  arrest 
and  should  not  try  to  arrest.  To  guide  the  nation 
wisely  there  was  need  by  these  leaders  not  only  of 
knowledge  of  Japan  but  a  knowledge  of  conditions 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  phrase  in  the 
Imperial  rescript  on  education  to  "seek  knowledge 
wherever  it  might  be  found  throughout  the  world," 
as  well  as  the  further  phrase  that  in  the  light  of 
this  knowledge  outworn  custom  should  be  set 
aside,  defined  the  new  policy.  In  the  endeavor 
to  carry  out  this  policy  a  large  group  of  foreign 
experts  were  invited  to  assist  the  Government, 
and  there  were  at  one  time  nearly  eight  hundred 
such  advisers  in  the  schools,  the  mint,  in  shipping 
and  commercial  affairs ;  and  a  large  number  of 
students  were  sent  abroad.  The  conception  of 
patriotism  was  now  greatly  broadened  ;  heretofore 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         253 

it  had  been  negative  in  that  it  meant  hostility 
to  outsiders,  now  it  began  to  be  constructive  and 
meant  an  ardent  endeavor  to  secure  for  Japan 
whatever  was  good  in  ideas  or  institutions  in 
other  countries  in  order  that  Japan  should  have 
all  the  light  it  could  gain  from  Western  experience. 

Buddhism  had  always  been  the  State  religion, 
and  everybody  was  expected  to  belong  to  some 
Buddhist  sect.  When  the  census  was  taken, 
every  one  was  asked  to  what  Buddhist  sect  he 
belonged,  not  so  much  for  the  information  gained, 
but  to  assure  the  country  that  there  were  no 
followers  of  Christianity.  Under  the  new  order 
religion  was  made  absolutely  free.  Under  the 
old  order  class  distinctions  had  been  very  rigid 
and  exacting ;  they  were  now  largely  leveled,  and 
enlightened  democracy  gained  ground  rapidly  in 
all  walks  of  life,  and  in  all  fields  of  endeavor  the 
assimilation  of  Western  endeavor  was  pursued 
with  great  ardor. 

After  Japan  learned  more  of  the  Western  nations 
it  discovered,  to  its  great  regret,  that  great  dis- 
crepancies existed  between  its  claims  as  an  in- 


254    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

dependent  country  and  the  treatment  accorded  it 
by  the  great  Powers.  This  discrepancy  was  most 
evident  and  exasperating  in  the  insistence  by 
those  Powers  on  the  right  of  exterritoriality  and 
the  denial  to  Japan  of  the  power  to  regulate  her 
own  tariff.  Japan  discovered  that  it  was  not 
wholly  independent  and  sovereign ;  that  it  was 
not  dealing  on  equal  terms  with  the  rest  of  the 
world ;  and  the  Japanese  people  were  wounded  in 
their  feelings  by  the  discovery  that  Japan  was 
treated  as  an  inferior  Power  on  a  level  with  Turkey 
and  Persia.  Patriotism  took  a  new  form,  and 
concentrated  itself  on  gaining  complete  autonomy 
in  legal  and  tariff  matters,  and  the  whole  energy 
of  the  nation  was  focused  in  the  endeavor  to  gain 
these  rights  as  the  means  of  raising  the  country 
to  the  level  of  Powers  of  the  first  rank. 

The  Japanese  people  realized  that  their  laws 
were  imperfect  and  incomplete  and  that  foreigners 
had  good  ground  for  criticism,  so  they  set  about 
revising  the  laws  so  that  foreigners  might  feel 
perfectly  safe  under  them.  They  discovered 
that  many  of  their  customs  were  regarded  by  the 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         255 

West  as  outlandish,  so  they  began  to  modify  them. 
They  discovered  that  their  social  usages  were  dis- 
tasteful to  the  West  and  were  regarded  as  ex- 
pressions of  an  inferior  civilization,  and  accordingly 
there  was  haste  to  bring  them  more  or  less  into 
harmony  with  Western  standards.  There  was  a 
period  of  great  haste  to  introduce  foreign  customs 
and  manners  in  the  court,  in  government  offices, 
and  in  social  circles.  Sunday  was  made  a  legal 
holiday.  The  court  adopted  foreign  dress,  though 
it  was  very  distasteful  to  the  persons  highest  in 
authority.  The  latest  fashions  were  promptly 
received  from  Paris,  dancing  was  introduced, 
balls  became  popular,  the  study  and  use  of  the 
English  language  were  much  encouraged,  and 
there  was  even  talk  of  Government  aid  in  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.  It  was  the  period 
of  extreme  Occidentalization,  of  mere  mimicry 
of  the  West,  not  without  its  absurd  features; 
but  it  was  the  expression  of  an  earnest  desire  to 
adopt  the  best  that  the  West  could  give  Japan, 
so  that  the  country  could  put  itself  in  such  a 
position  that  the  world  would  recognize  it  in  no 


256    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

sense  inferior  to  the  other  great  nations.  Through 
this  apparently  flippant  attempt  to  transform 
society  customs,  primarily  to  secure  treaty  re- 
vision, the  Japanese  people  gained  a  deeper 
knowledge  of  the  principles  which  underlie  Western 
civilization.  The  people  of  the  country  began 
to  read  Western  books,  and  gained  an  insight  into 
Western  life  and  ideals.  They  began  to  get 
acquainted  with  the  principles  of  civil  life  and 
constitutional  government,  and  to  ask  for  a  larger 
share  in  influencing  the  policy  of  the  country. 
Mill,  Spencer,  and  Darwin  were  eagerly  read, 
and  the  philosophy  of  evolution  took  hold  of 
many  Japanese  thinkers.  The  spread  of  these 
ideas  was  an  obstacle  to  Christianity,  but  the 
interest  in  fresh  ideas  gave  the  missionaries  a 
still  wider  opportunity  to  disseminate  their  faith. 
There  were  many  people  who  thought  Japan  was 
on  the  very  verge  of  being  Christianized.  Public 
education  was  widespread,  and  the  number  of 
middle  schools  greatly  increased. 

We  look  back  on  those  days  with  amusement 
at  the  haste  to  adopt  Western  customs,  but  the 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         257 

great  motive  which  prompted  it  gained  its  end. 
The  treaties  were  revised,  exterritoriality  was 
abolished,  and  tariff  autonomy  was  conceded. 
America  had  never  objected  to  these  demands 
of  Japan;  but  England,  having  a  greater  num- 
ber of  residents  in  Japan  and  much  larger  busi- 
ness interests,  was  naturally  more  reluctant, 
but  finally  signed  the  treaty  first,  America  already 
having  given  her  assent.  The  other  Powers 
speedily  followed  the  example  of  these  two  coun- 
tries, and  in  1894  one  great  object  on  which  the 
heart  of  the  whole  nation,  from  the  Emperor 
down,  was  set,  and  towards  which  all  its  energies 
were  directed,  was  accomplished. 

But  in  the  same  year,  almost  in  the  same 
month,  the  third  period  of  transformation  began. 
At  the  very  time  that  the  telegram  came  from 
London  reporting  the  revision  of  the  treaties, 
telegrams  came  from  China  and  Korea  report- 
ing that  the  situation  in  the  two  countries  was 
getting  more  critical.  The  British  Ambassador 
in  Peking  tried  to  reconcile  these  differences, 
but  the  Chinese  Government  contemptuously 


258    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

declined  to  accept  the  concessions  made  by 
Japan  and  continued  to  pour  troops  into  Korea 
in  violation  of  the  treaty.  Western  ideas  were 
then  widely  circulated  among  members  of  our 
parliament,  and  if  the  war  with  China  had  not 
come  when  the  question  of  treaty  revision  was 
settled  there  would  have  been  further  develop- 
ments of  popular  rights  and  of  administrative 
reforms. 

The  country  greatly  needed  a  breathing-spell, 
but  that  was  denied  by  the  outbreak  of  the  war ; 
the  attention  of  the  country  was  diverted  in  a 
new  direction,  and  patriotism  took  on  a  more 
aggressive  form.  The  war  with  China  was  ended 
by  the  treaty  signed  at  Shimonoseki ;  a  treaty 
in  every  way  honorable  to  Japan,  whose  demands 
were  not  in  any  way  exorbitant.  But  Russia, 
Germany,  and  France  joined  forces  and  deprived 
Japan  of  the  fruits  of  her  victory;  for  the  sake 
of  peace  in  the  Far  East  these  Powers  declared 
that  Japan  must  not  take  any  territory  in  Liao- 
tung  peninsula.  Under  the  conditions  Japan 
was  powerless,  but  felt  deeply  injured ;  she 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         259 

"swallowed  her  tears,"  to  use  a  Japanese  phrase, 
and  kept  silence.  Within  three  years  these  three 
great  Powers  were  calmly  taking  to  themselves 
great  sections  of  China. 

When  the  Boxers  rose  against  the  foreigners, 
the  Japanese  Government  refused  to  intervene, 
and  the  Japanese  said  to  themselves,  "The 
Powers  have  invoked  this  punishment ;  let  them 
settle  the  situation  among  themselves."  But 
on  the  earnest  advice  of  England  and  America 
that  something  should  be  done  to  prevent  further 
bloodshed,  Japanese  troops  joined  the  European 
forces  in  China.  What  Japan  did  is  known  to 
the  world,  which  does  not,  however,  understand 
what  that  rebellion  would  have  been  had  Japan 
not  aided  in  its  suppression ;  it  was  so  near  that 
an  army  could  be  poured  in.  After  the  Boxers 
had  been  suppressed  Europe  and  America  with- 
drew their  armies ;  but  Russia,  which  during  the 
disturbance  had  sent  in  a  large  army  and  oc- 
cupied Manchuria,  although  repeatedly  urged 
to  do  so,  refused  to  withdraw  its  troops.  Eng- 
land, America,  and  Japan  repeatedly  asked 


260    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

Russia  to  retire  its  forces,  but  under  various 
pretenses  the  Russians  remained  in  military 
occupation  of  Manchuria.  The  United  States 
advocated  the  open  door  in  Manchuria,  and  all 
the  Powers  agreed  except  Russia,  which  always 
closes  the  doors.  Russia  even  tried  to  exclude 
foreigners  already  resident  in  Manchuria,  and 
there  must  be  missionaries  in  Manchuria  who 
still  have  passports  that  direct  that  the  holder 
should  stop  preaching.  The  world  recollects 
the  history  of  the  war  that  followed  and  how  it 
ended.  It  was  not  surprising  that  America 
and  England  were  sincerely  and  emphatically 
with  Japan.  They  desired  what  Japan  desired. 
One  reason  of  Japanese  success  in  the  war  was  the 
lesson  which  had  been  taught  it  by  the  training 
of  outside  oppression  in  the  need  of  uniting  for 
self-defense  and  self-respect.  Patriotism  could 
no  longer  be  passive ;  it  had  to  become  positive 
and  active,  and,  in  a  sense,  aggressive.  The 
sense  of  injustice  which  Japan  felt  when  the 
fruits  of  her  victory  over  China  were  taken  from 
her  created  aggressive  patriotism,  and  this  pa- 


PRIME   MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         261 

triotism  was  greatly  increased  by  the  war  with 
Russia.  The  people  of  the  country  were  very- 
disappointed  with  the  result  of  the  two  wars; 
they  believed  that  the  damage  inflicted  on  Russia 
was  much  greater  than  it  really  was,  and  they 
looked  for  material  compensation  from  that 
country,  and  were  bitterly  disappointed  when 
they  did  not  get  it. 

The  economic  results  were  in  many  ways  dis- 
astrous. As  long  as  Japan  was  conscious  of  its 
deficiencies  and  eager  to  learn,  there  was  great 
desire  for  progress,  but  the  results  of  the  two 
wars  made  the  Japanese  suddenly  self-conscious ; 
they  had  beaten  two  big  fellows  and  they  thought 
that  they  could  beat  anybody.  The  victory  was 
attributed  not  only  to  military  and  naval  ex- 
cellence, but  to  moral  superiority.  Bushido  be- 
gan to  be  very  widely  talked  about ;  a  moral 
system  with  many  virtues,  but  not  adapted  to 
the  twentieth  century.  Admiration  for  the  he- 
roes of  the  war  brought  them  into  great  promi- 
nence in  other  fields.  The  financial  drain  of  the 
war  made  it  necessary  to  raise  duties  on  imports, 


262    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

and  in  consequence  prices  in  general  were  raised, 
and  the  cost  of  living  rose  with  them,  bringing 
serious  distress.  Believing  that  the  rise  of  the 
country  to  a  place  among  the  great  Powers 
was  due  in  part  to  the  educational  system,  the 
pedagogue  intensified  that  system  until  it  was  cast 
in  grooves,  and  whatever  was  not  in  accord  with 
it  was  regarded  as  dangerous.  From  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  school  there  was  a  chronological 
order  which  led  the  youth  up  step  by  step  and 
left  little  room  for  originality  or  individual  in- 
struction. This  is  the  weakness  of  State  educa- 
tion. Intelligent  people  know  very  well  that 
the  mind  cannot  be  compressed  into  an  iron 
frame,  and  that  the  moment  such  a  frame  is 
made  there  will  be  minds  which  cannot  be  so 
cramped  and  will  revolt.  Men  who  devise  these 
frames  know  their  weakness  and  show  it  in  the 
fear  they  manifest  of  contrary  opinions.  The 
Government  watches  new  ideas  of  individualism, 
of  cosmopolitanism,  of  Socialism,  of  every  form 
of  political  and  social  heterodoxy.  In  spite  of 
this,  dissenting  opinions  are  in  the  air,  and  al- 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN         263 

though  the  authorities  know  that  it  is  idle  to 
attempt  to  destroy  ideas  by  suppressing  them, 
they  go  on  with  the  mistaken  policy  of  trying  to 
do  so,  with  the  result  that  the  more  they  attempt 
to  suppress  ideas  the  more  the  ideas  spread. 
While  the  attempt  is  being  made  to  identify 
patriotism  with  a  very  narrow  conception,  ideas 
fundamentally  antagonistic  are  being  brought  in 
from  Europe.  The  Japanese  people  are  getting 
tired  of  the  kind  of  narrow  patriotism  demanded 
of  them,  and  are  showing  signs  of  fatigue  —  moral, 
political,  and  educational. 

I  have  said  that,  whether  in  the  codification 
of  laws  or  in  the  change  of  institutions,  the  Japa- 
nese have  always  been  pulled  from  without ; 
they  have  not  worked  from  inward  impulse, 
but  under  outward  pressure.  They  have  been 
pulled  to  a  height  for  which  they  were  not  in- 
ternally prepared.  If  outside  pressure  had  not 
been  so  strong  and  so  continuous,  the  best  thing 
for  the  Japanese  would  have  been  a  pause  in  order 
that  they  might  look  around  and  see  where  they 
were.  Such  a  pause  was  denied  them,  and  they 


264    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

are  still  going  forward  with  makeshifts  devised  as 
necessity  dictates.  We  are  mistaking  temporary 
devices  for  eternal  plans.  The  men  who  started 
the  forward  movement  of  new  Japan  have  died 
or  aged,  and  the  young  men  who  have  taken  their 
places  were  born  and  brought  up  in  times  of  great 
pressure  and  did  not  get  the  mental  and  moral 
training  which  the  best  circumstances  would 
have  given  them.  They  were  schooled  in  the 
admiration  of  a  system  rather  than  of  its  spirit. 
Hope  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  are  nowr  conscious 
of  the  situation ;  we  know  that  we  are  standing 
at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  We  have  been  arti- 
ficially raised  to  a  height,  and  to  reach  it  we  have 
resorted  to  all  kinds  of  stimulants,  and  fatigue 
has  ensued.  This  is  shown  by  universal  dis- 
satisfaction ;  in  no  field  is  this  more  manifest 
than  in  politics ;  in  four  months  there  have 
been  three  ministries,  there  have  been  mobs ; 
no  Cabinet  changes  have  ever  been  watched  with 
such  interest  by  the  people  as  those  of  recent 
months.  The  powerful  party  of  the  Seiyukai, 
led  by  the  late  Prime  Minister,  Marquis  Saionji, 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN          265 

has  been  disrupted.  When  such  a  disruption 
of  a  great  party  occurs  in  a  country  like  the 
United  States  with  long  party  experience,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  it  should  occur  in  a  country 
of  such  limited  political  experience  as  Japan. 
I  have  no  desire  to  compare  men  still  young  in 
political  experience  with  veteran  statesmen  like 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  but  the  circumstances  that  made 
Mr.  Ozaki  secede  from  the  Seiyukai  were  at 
bottom  very  much  like  the  circumstances  that 
caused  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  leave  the  Republican 
party.  Any  party  too  long  in  power  is  likely  to 
breed  corruption. 

In  education,  too,  there  is  universal  dissatis- 
faction, as  evidenced  in  the  approaching  creation 
of  a  central  committee  for  educational  revision. 
In  finances  people  are  clamoring  for  a  reduction 
in  taxes,  and  military  expenditures  are  studied 
with  a  view  to  economy.  A  reform  movement 
is  on  foot  to  extend  the  franchise.  There  is  no 
field  of  thought  or  activity  in  Japan  in  which 
there  is  not  dissatisfaction. 

If  a  generation  means  a  period  of  thirty  years, 


266    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

only  two  generations  have  passed  since  Japan 
started  out  on  its  new  development ;  and  what 
has  been  done  in  two  generations;  with  all  the 
mistakes  made,  gives  reason  for  confidence  and 
hope.  The  mistakes  are  instructive  if  the  suc- 
cesses of  the  past  do  not  arouse  within  us  the 
pride  which  goes  before  disaster,  but  in  which 
not  a  few  of  my  countrymen  indulge.  With  a 
little  pause  for  reflection  we  can  continue  in  the 
course  marked  out  for  ourselves.  As  far  as 
mental  capacity  is  concerned,  I  believe  our  race 
does  not  show  inferiority.  Western  philosophy 
can  be  translated  into  our  language,  and  we  can 
understand  whatever  the  West  has  written  or 
thought.  In  learning  and  art  we  can  enjoy 
whatever  the  West  enjoys ;  and  there  seems  to 
be  no  fundamental  difference  in  the  intellectual 
ability  of  East  arid  West.  I  am  speaking  of 
individuals ;  how  far  we  can  raise  the  general 
national  standard  of  thinking,  of  feeling,  and 
of  acting  is  another  question.  I  am  not  with- 
out hope  that  in  the  next  forty  years,  which  will 
complete  the  century  of  Japan's  joining  the 


PRIME  MINISTER  ON  JAPAN          267 

comity  of  nations,  we  shall  have  attained,  not  the 
same  level  with  the  West,  because  the  West  is  also 
progressing,  but  a  level  not  far  removed  from  the 
level  of  the  West,  and  which  will  bring  us  on  more 
equal  terms  with  the  West  than  at  present. 

The  saving  elements  in  Japan  will  be  the  de- 
velopment of  popular  life  and  of  education.  In 
public  life  that  development  will  take  the  form 
of  a  fuller  understanding  of  party  government. 
I  have  myself  at  one  time  formed  and  led  a  po- 
litical party,  and  the  great  service  of  a  new  party 
under  Prince  Katsura  is  as  a  step  in  general 
progress.  Prince  Ito  formed  the  Seiyukai  as  a  re- 
sult of  close  study  of  constitutional  governments 
abroad ;  he  considered  parties  necessary  organs 
of  public  opinion.  Prince  Katsura  is  forming 
a  new  party,  not  as  a  logical  consequence  of  a 
scientific  theory  which  he  holds,  but  as  demanded 
by  existing  conditions.  Whatever  the  motives 
behind  the  organization  of  new  parties,  they  are 
to  be  welcomed  because  they  effect  the  education 
of  the  people  at  large ;  they  show  a  deeper  in- 
terest of  the  public  in  questions  of  national 


268    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

polity.  In  education  a  more  enlightened  and 
less  rigid  system  should  be  introduced.  These 
two  reforms  will  eventually  aid  the  country  in 
realizing  its  highest  hopes.  So  far  all  the  move- 
ments in  Japan  have  been  directed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. Our  Constitution,  unlike  that  of  other 
countries,  was  conferred  on  us  by  our  ruler,  and 
progress  of  every  kind  has  been  initiated  by  the 
Government.  Even  the  expression  of  public 
opinion  through  the  press  has  been  encouraged 
by  the  Government ;  while  I  was  connected  with 
the  Government  I  assisted  in  the  creation  of 
half  a  dozen  newspapers.  Political  parties  were 
and  are  still  largely  recruited  by  people  who 
served  in  Government.  In  other  words,  in  every 
department  of  social  and  political  activity  the 
initiative  has  thus  far  come  always  from  the 
Government ;  but,  thanks  to  its  educative  in- 
fluence, people  are  coming  to  know  and  feel  their 
own  power.  The  formation  of  political  parties 
will  hasten  the  education  of  the  people,  and 
through  education  alone  can  the  general  uplift 
of  the  nation  fully  express  itself  and  secure  for 
the  country  the  most  lasting  results. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THREE   STAGES   OF  INTERCOURSE 

AN  American,  who  will  always  be  remem- 
bered by  his  friends  as  incarnating  a  genius  for 
friendship,  was  living  in  lodgings  in  the  old  street 
in  London  in  which  Franklin  stayed,  when  he 
received  word  that  one  of  the  most  interesting 
men  of  his  generation  was  coming  to  England  for 
the  first  time  —  a  writer  who  made  American 
history  as  interesting  as  a  story  of  adventure, 
and  to  whom  the  history  of  England  was  as 
familiar  as  the  years  of  his  childhood.  The 
two  friends  met  on  the  landing-stage  when  the 
steamer  docked,  traveled  to  London  by  the 
first  train,  drove  to  the  lodgings  of  the  host, 
dined  and  talked  as  two  friends  will  talk  when 
all  the  conditions  make  intimacy  not  only  agree- 
able, but  inevitable. 

The  guest  was  restless,  however,  and  soon  re- 

269 


270    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

minded  his  host  that  it  was  his  first  night  in  the 
Old  World,  and  that  he  was  eager  for  exploration. 
They  started  out  late  in  the  evening ;  the  street 
was  quiet,  the  "central  roar"  had  died  down 
into  a  hoarse  murmur.  The  two  men  walked 
swiftly  to  the  Embankment ;  a  low  moon  hung 
over  the  river,  the  Surrey  side  had  the  look  of  a 
Whistler  etching,  and  a  vast  brooding  silence 
hushed  the  uproar  of  the  age  and  steeped  the 
city  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  past.  Leaning 
for  a  moment  over  the  parapet,  the  older  man 
cried,  "Is  this  the  Thames?"  his  great  frame 
shaking  with  emotion ;  and  then,  catching  a 
glimpse  of  Westminster  Palace,  he  seized  his 
friend  by  the  arm  and  swept  him  impetuously 
along  toward  the  great  pile  of  buildings  in  which 
the  past  and  present  greatness  of  England  is 
enshrined.  All  night  they  hurried,  breathless 
and  excited,  from  point  to  point  in  the  old  town ; 
coming  home  at  dawn  exhausted  not  so  much  by 
physical  fatigue  as  by  emotional  strain. 

For  the  guest  it  had  been  one  of  those  adven- 
tures of  the  spirit  which  are  so  intense  that  for 


THREE  STAGES   OF   INTERCOURSE    271 

the  moment  they  seem  to  drain  the  very  springs 
of  life;  for  the  host  it  had  all  the  excitement 
of  a  new  reading  of  an  old  book.  It  was  not 
an  approach  to  a  strange  civilization,  a  sudden 
and  dramatic  contact  with  a  novel  order  of 
things ;  it  was  a  night  of  recollection,  it  was  a 
home  coming.  The  interest  lay  not  in  the  strange- 
ness, but  in  the  familiarity  of  it  all.  After  long 
absence,  filled  with  study  of  old  places  and  ances- 
tral associations,  the  man  of  the  New  World  had 
come  back  to  his  own  and  taken  possession  of 
the  playground  of  his  childhood. 

Few  people  realize  that  wrhen  the  West  first 
saw  Japan  it  not  only  saw  a  country  radically 
different  in  manner  and  way  of  life  from  the 
world  with  which  it  was  familiar,  but  an  ancient 
civilization,  of  a  very  high  order,  which  had  been 
completely  developed,  largely  in  isolation.  Much 
had  been  received  from  the  continent  of  Asia, 
but  what  had  been  taken  had  been  modified, 
adapted,  and  refashioned  by  a  genius  for  assimi- 
lation which  is  at  the  same  time  intensely  in- 
dividual and  tenacious. 


272    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Okakura  puts  these  two  elements  of  the  Japa- 
nese spirit  cogently  and  clearly:  "Our  sym- 
pathizers have  been  pleased  to  marvel  at  the 
facility  with  which  we  have  introduced  Western 
science  and  industries,  constitutional  govern- 
ment, and  the  organization  necessary  for  carry- 
ing on  a  gigantic  wTar.  They  forget  that  the 
strength  of  the  movement  which  brought  Japan 
to  her  present  position  is  due  not  less  to  the 
innate  virility  which  has  enabled  her  to  assimi- 
late the  teachings  of  a  foreign  civilization  than 
to  her  capability  of  adopting  its  methods.  With 
a  race,  as  with  an  individual,  it  is  not  the  accu- 
mulation of  extraneous  knowledge,  but  the  real- 
ization of  the  self  within,  that  constitutes  true 
progress." 

Asia  has  sent  almost  as  many  streams  of  in- 
fluence into  Japan  as  Europe  has  sent  into  this 
country,  and  Buddhism  and  the  spirit  and  thought 
of  the  Chinese  classics  have  penetrated  and  colored 
Japanese  life  as  the  divinations  and  discoveries 
of  the  genius  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  have 
entered  into  and  shaped  the  view  of  life  of  the 


Western  world.  But  to  the  eye  Japan,  lying 
half  a  day's  journey  from  Asia,  is  almost  as  differ- 
ent from  China  and  India  as  from  Italy  and 
England.  Until  her  awakening,  which  was  has- 
tened by  Commodore  Perry,  but  in  no  sense 
dependent  on  him,  Japan  shared  the  lethargy 
which  lay  on  China  and  India.  The  nation 
slept  in  "the  night  of  Asia,"  but  long  before 
the  hand  of  the  American  knocked  at  the  door 
the  sleeper  had  begun  to  stir  and  the  morning 
light  was  coming  in  at  the  windows. 

That  lethargy  did  not,  however,  mean  an 
arrest  of  civilization ;  it  meant  the  preservation 
of  a  type  of  civilization  complete  in  itself. 

Whatever  the  immediate  outcome  may  be,  the 
significant  fact  is  that  when  the  Western  peoples 
saw  Japan  for  the  first  time  sixty  years  ago  they 
saw  a  completely  developed  civilization  of  a 
type  that  was  entirely  novel  to  them.  The 
West  had  seen  strange  peoples  in  many  stages 
of  social  evolution,  from  the  lowest  forms  of 
savage  life  to  the  highest  forms  of  semi-barbaric 
life.  In  Japan  it  found  a  people  who  had  gone 


274    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

to  the  end  of  the  path  which  they  had  followed 
for  twenty-five  hundred  years. 

In  India  and  China  the  West  had  come  face 
to  face  with  an  antiquity  beside  which  its  oldest 
experiences  were  matters  of  yesterday,  but  in 
both  countries  the  line  of  normal  development 
had  been  interrupted  and  broken  again  and 
again.  In  both  countries  it  found  races  whose 
genius  long  ago  made  rich  contributions  to  the 
common  stock  of  knowledge  and  will  make  still 
greater  contributions  in  the  future,  but  whose 
territory  had  been  invaded  again  and  again, 
whose  history  was  largely  the  story  of  the  in- 
cursions of  aliens  who  brought  with  them  differ- 
ent types  of  mind,  strange  customs,  novel  forms 
of  social  order,  and  who,  by  superior  organiza- 
tion or  a  more  aggressive  temper,  sooner  or  later 
became  the  governing  races. 

Japanese  history,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been 
the  record  of  a  practically  uninterrupted  racial 
life.  The  islands  which  constitute  the  Empire 
of  Japan  have  not  only  never  been  conquered, 
they  have  never  been  invaded.  The  Emperor 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    275 

now  reigning  is  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
second  of  his  dynasty;  the  development  of  the 
life  of  the  people,  whatever  its  limitations  and 
defects,  has  been  uninterrupted  by  disturbance 
from  without.  It  has  been  deeply  influenced 
by  Asiatic  ideals  and  conventions;  but  the 
foreign  ideals  and  manners  which  have  found 
acceptance  by  the  Japanese  have  made  their 
way  by  persuasion,  not  by  arms. 

Japan  differs  radically  from  the  other  coun- 
tries of  the  East  in  its  possession  of  a  sensitive 
national  consciousness  and  of  a  thorough  and 
minute  social  and  political  organization.  In 
this  respect  it  stands  in  striking  contrast  to  other 
Oriental  countries.  So  far  as  the  feeling  of 
racial  unity  and  the  consciousness  of  sharply 
defined  national  aims  and  interests  are  concerned, 
India  and  China  have  been  mere  geographical 
terms,  conveying  no  such  group  of  ideas,  convic- 
tions, and  mental  habits  as  the  words  Italy, 
France,  or  England  conyey.  Japan,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  as  keen  a  sense  of  its  individuality, 
so  to  speak,  as  any  Western  nation ;  and  in  point 


276    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

of  thoroughness  of  organization  stands  beside 
Germany.  The  immense  significance  of  this  fact 
has  not  yet  been  recognized  in  the  West. 

These  facts  bring  into  view  the  unique  con- 
ditions which  the  West  found  in  Japan  sixty  years 
ago :  a  fully  developed  civilization,  completely 
realizing  its  type,  and  preserved  intact  by  free- 
dom from  foreign  interference  during  the  earlier 
centuries  of  its  history  and  by  isolation  during 
the  later  centuries.  The  sudden  unveiling  of 
this  ancient  and  intensely  individual  civilization 
in  the  ultimate  stages  of  its  growth  was  a  novel 
experience  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  can 
never  be  repeated. 

The  coming  together  of  Japan  and  the  West 
was  the  most  dramatic  instance  in  history  of 
sudden  acquaintance  between  nations,  and  at 
the  beginning  it  was  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight. 
It  is  true  that  there  was  a  widespread  protest 
in  Japan  against  the  abandonment  of  the  old 
policy  of  seclusion  —  an  outbreak  of  passionate 
loyalty  to  the  old  order.  The  Shogun's  rule 
was  already  undermined  in  1853,  but  his  ad- 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    277 

visers  were  better  informed  with  regard  to  the 
strength  and  resources  of  the  nations  which  de- 
manded certain  privileges  of  hospitality  and 
trade  in  the  Empire  than  are  the  advisers  of  the 
Emperor.  The  Daimyos  as  a  class  counseled 
resistance,  and  efforts  were  made  to  put  the 
country  in  a  position  to  defend  itself.  Forts 
were  hastily  built,  lessons  were  given  in  the  use 
of  foreign  arms,  and  in  the  ardor  of  patriotic 
devotion  beautiful  bronzes  and  sonorous  temple 
bells  were  melted  and  recast  into  cannon.  The 
ancient  antagonism  to  foreigners  was  fanned 
into  a  flame,  songs  of  derision  and  of  fiery  appeal 
for  resistance  ran  through  the  country,  as  songs 
that  voice  the  feeling  of  an  hour  will  run  with 
the  wind  in  times  of  great  excitement. 

In  dealing  with  the  Shogun  Commodore  Perry 
supposed  he  was  dealing  with  the  supreme  author- 
ity in  the  Empire ;  and  if  the  power  of  the  Sho- 
gun had  not  been  seriously  impaired  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  treaty  with  the  United  States  would 
have  been  accepted,  not  without  protest,  but 
without  serious  resistance.  But  that  power  had 


278    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

been  greatly  shaken,  and  the  Shogun's  authority 
to  make  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  Power  was  sharply 
challenged.  His  advisers  at  Yeddo  were  allied 
with  a  losing  cause,  but  they  understood  the 
crisis  through  which  Japan  in  its  relations  with 
the  outside  world  was  passing  better  than  the 
advisers  of  the  Emperor  at  Kyoto.  They  had 
seen  the  ships  of  the  foreign  fleets  and  had  met 
the  representatives  of  the  foreign  governments, 
and  they  became  convinced  that  successful  re- 
sistance was  impossible.  This  conviction  was 
deepened  by  the  events  of  the  fourteen  years 
that  followed  Commodore  Perry's  landing,  and 
found  final  expression  in  an  address  to  his  sup- 
porters made  by  the  last  Shogun  in  1867,  in  which 
he  said :  "It  appears  to  me  that  the  laws  cannot 
be  maintained  in  face  of  the  daily  extension  of 
our  foreign  relations,  unless  the  Government 
be  conducted  by  one  head,  and  I  propose,  there- 
fore, to  surrender  the  whole  governing  power 
into  the  hands  of  the  Imperial  Court.  This  is 
the  best  I  can  do  for  the  interests  of  the  Empire." 
Thus  ended,  in  1868,  after  some  complications, 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    279 

the  extraordinary  dual  government  which  had 
existed  for  centuries,  and  the  young  Emperor 
assumed  the  executive  functions  of  government. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  an  open  mind; 
and  he  was  fortunate  in  being  served  later  by  a 
group  of  statesmen  who,  like  Okubo  and  Ito,  not 
only  accepted  the  new  order  of  things,  but  cour- 
ageously began  the  reconstruction  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Empire  and  the  study  of  foreign 
methods.  After  a  stormy  period  of  resistance 
and  dissension,  a  brave  and  wise  Government 
not  only  reversed  the  ancient  policy  of  seclusion, 
but,  by  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  national 
education,  by  means  of  embassies  sent  to  the 
West  and  by  the  invitation  of  large  numbers  of 
foreign  teachers  to  Japan,  dissipated  the  old- 
time  prejudice  and  dislike  and  created  a  wide- 
spread interest  in  Western  ideas  and  ways.  A 
wave  of  enthusiasm  for  Western  learning  and 
methods  swept  over  the  country  and  carried 
the  movement  for  change  and  reconstruction  to 
unwise  and  even  comic  extremes.  The  Japanese 
opened  their  minds  and  hearts  to  the  West,  and 


280    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

the  reaction  against  the  past  was  so  extreme  that 
for  a  time  it  seemed  to  threaten  the  integrity  of 
the  Japanese  spirit  and  genius.  Old  things  of 
priceless  value  were  neglected,  while  new  things 
unworthy  the  imitation  of  a  highly  civilized  and 
artistic  people  found  favor  on  all  sides.  When 
the  Japanese  saw  the  West,  they  gave  their  minds 
and  hearts  to  it. 

With  the  cultivated  travelers  from  the  West 
who  first  saw  Japan  and  gave  direction  to  the 
earlier  opinion  about  that  country,  it  was  also  a 
case  of  love  at  first  sight. 

The  first  impressions  were,  as  a  rule,  that  the 
world  had  recovered  a  kind  of  lost  art ;  that  a 
strange  and  exciting  form  of  beauty  had  been 
unveiled  and  a  delicately  shaded  and  finely 
tempered  way  and  manner  of  life  brought  to 
light.  "  There  must  be  something  lacking,  or 
something  very  harsh,"  wrote  Lafcadio  Hearn, 
ain  the  nature  to  which  Japan  can  make  no 
emotional  appeal.  The  appeal  itself  is  the  clue 
to  a  problem ;  and  that  problem  is  the  character 
of  a  race  and  of  its  civilization." 


THREE  STAGES   OF  INTERCOURSE    281 

The  country  had  the  charm  of  novelty;  it 
had  also  the  striking  effectiveness  of  presenting 
itself  in  broad  contrast  to  the  West;  to  the 
superficial  observer  the  Japanese  did  everything 
in  a  spirit  of  contradiction ;  they  began  to  read 
books  at  the  bottom  of  the  last  page,  they  ob- 
stinately pulled  the  plane  towards  them  instead 
of  pushing  it  away,  they  turned  the  key  the 
wrong  way  in  the  lock,  they  painted,  instead  of 
writing,  their  letters.  In  a  hundred  ways  they 
reversed  the  methods  of  the  West.  The  language 
set  all  familiar  modes  and  rules  at  defiance ;  to 
"pick  up  a  working  vocabulary"  was  a  waste  of 
time  unless  one  could  learn  "to  think  backwards, 
to  think  upside  down  and  inside  out." 

It  was  a  new  world  on  which  the  early  West- 
ern travelers  looked,  and  there  was  the  excite- 
ment of  discovery  about  it,  the  sensation  of 
shock.  There  was  also,  for  those  who  had  eyes 
to  see  and  were  not  village-minded,  the  novel 
charm  of  a  life  penetrated  by  an  artistic  instinct 
that  gave  coherence  to  manners,  customs,  ways 
of  doing  things.  The  surface  of  life  disclosed 


282    JAPAN   TO-DAY  AND   TO-MORROW 

an  inward  richness  of  ideas  and  ideals  which  had 
become  regulative  and  vitally  expressive  as  the 
result  of  the  long  process  of  "silence  and  slow 
time."  Art  had  filtered  down  through  occupa- 
tion until  it  had  touched  work  at  a  thousand 
points  and  made  industiy  a  matter  of  craftsman- 
ship, and  created  standards  of  taste  which  had 
long  ceased  to  need  definition  because  they  had 
become  instinctive.  However  one  might  protest 
against  specific  aspects  of  that  life,  one  could 
not  fail  to  recognize  its  quality  and  texture  — 
its  wholeness,  so  to  speak. 

The  ways  of  living  and  the  manners  of  the 
people  were  of  the  substance  of  their  character. 
They  were  cheerful,  courteous,  gentle ;  bolts 
and  locks  were  practically  unknown ;  family 
interests  tempered  and  subdued  individual  in- 
terests to  the  uses  of  the  larger  social  unit ;  the 
poor  were  cared  for  as  a  matter  of  course  by  their 
more  prosperous  relations.  The  people  were 
simple  in  their  habits ;  there  were  great  nobles, 
but  great  fortunes  were  few.  Things  of  common 
use  were  as  beautiful  in  their  way  as  the  treasures 


THREE  STAGES  OF   INTERCOURSE    283 

of  art  in  temples  and  palaces.  A  study  of  the 
Japanese  pottery  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts  and  of  the  tools  used  in  the  handicrafts  in 
the  Peabody  Museum  in  Salem  —  for  the  com- 
pleteness of  which  this  country  owes  a  lasting 
debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Edward  M.  Morse  - 
not  only  reveals  the  quality  and  forms  of  Japa- 
nese art,  but  shows  that  art  was  the  language  of 
the  people,  and  not  the  dialect  of  a  group  of 
artists. 

The  first  contact  of  the  West  with  Japan  was 
so  full  of  intellectual  excitement  that  the  early 
travelers  in  the  newly  opened  country  were 
swept  off  their  feet;  so  to  speak,  and  reported 
the  discovery  of  a  wonderland.  The  strange- 
ness instantly  arrested  attention,  while  the  ripe- 
ness and  beauty  of  an  old  and  completely  de- 
veloped civilization,  wrhich  fitted  the  people  like 
a  garment  woven  out  of  their  innermost  thoughts, 
captivated  the  eye  and  the  imagination.  The 
West  lost  its  heart  to  Japan. 

"What  are  we  to  do  ?"  asked  a  Japanese  of  an 
American.  "When  you  first  saw  us,  you  loved 


284    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

everything  Japanese.  You  said  we  were  a  nation 
of  artists  and  gentlemen.  Then  we  came  under 
your  influence  and  tried  to  Westernize  our  coun- 
try, and  you  began  to  lose  your  liking  for  us. 
The  more  we  have  become  like  you,  the  less  you 
have  cared  for  us,  and  now  you  seem  to  hate 
us." 

The  statement  was  too  dramatic,  but  there 
was  a  considerable  element  of  truth  in  it.  The 
courage  and  skill  of  Japan  in  a  war  in  which  it 
appeared  to  be  matched  against  a  foe  of  im- 
mensely greater  resources,  not  only  revived  in- 
terest in  the  Japanese,  but  furnished  ground  for 
a  new  kind  of  admiration  and  respect ;  the  artists 
and  gentlemen  had  revealed  the  mastery  of  the 
skill  of  the  soldier,  and  a  hand  of  steel  within 
the  glove. 

The  early  enchantment  was,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  evanescent ;  the  veiy  strangeness  which 
was  at  first  a  source  of  attraction  was  certain, 
when  novelty  wore  off  and  old  tastes  and  habits 
reasserted  themselves,  to  become  a  source  of 
separation.  Two  civilizations  cannot  come  to- 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    285 

gether  without  irritation  and  painful  adjust- 
ments. Moreover;  Japan  ceased  to  be  a  mu- 
seum, a  country  outside  the  activities  of  the 
modern  world  in  which  an  archaic  and  artistic 
civilization  was  preserved  for  the  study  of  West- 
ern peoples.  It  entered  the  area  of  commercial 
struggle  and  became  an  able  and  ambitious 
competitor.  It  had  to  be  taken  into  account 
also  as  a  highly  organized  nation,  trained  in 
the  use  of  Western  weapons  and  with  a  powerful 
army  and  navy  at  its  command.  Its  appearance 
in  this  new  role  was  not  a  matter  of  regret  to 
Americans,  whose  interests  in  the  Far  East  were 
comparatively  negligible,  while  their  ignorance 
of  that  section  of  the  globe  was  almost  ideally 
complete.  For  the  majority  of  Americans  the 
battle  in  the  harbor  of  Manila  was  the  beginning 
of  their  acquaintance  with  Far  Eastern  geography. 
To  the  so-called  great  Powers,  accustomed  to 
decide  the  fortunes  of  the  East  in  London,  Berlin, 
Paris,  or  Vienna,  the  appearance  of  an  Oriental 
Power  was  as  unwelcome  as  it  was  unexpected, 
and  diplomatists  whose  intelligence  was  illumi- 


286    JAPAN   TO-DAY   AND  TO-MORROW 

nated  by  imagination  were  quick  to  see  that  the 
appearance  of  Japan  marked  the  beginning  of 
the  end  of  the  era  of  division  of  territory  and 
exploitation.  Japan  is  paying  the  price  of  emerg- 
ing from  seclusion  and  ceasing  to  be  the  happy 
hunting-ground  of  collectors  and  literary  im- 
pressionists. 

The  beauty  remained,  but  the  spell  was  broken, 
and  there  was  an  inevitable  reaction ;  deep- 
seated  instincts  protested,  ancient  habits  of 
thought  reasserted  themselves.  Then  followed 
the  psychological  struggle  which  is  involved  in 
the  coming  together  of  two  strong  nations.  When 
nations  approach  one  another,  the  past  rises  in 
protest ;  ancestors  who  have  been  in  their  graves 
for  centuries  are  once  more  in  arms.  "You 
have  been  transported  out  of  your  own  century," 
writes  Lafcadio  Hearn,  "over  spaces  enormous 
of  perished  time,  into  an  era  forgotten,  into  a 
vanished  age  —  back  to  something  ancient  as 
Egypt  or  Nineveh.  That  is  the  secret  of  the 
strangeness  and  beauty  of  things,  the  secret  of 
the  thrill  they  give,  the  secret  of  the  elfish  charm 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    287 

of  the  people  and  their  ways."  And  he  reminds 
us  that  if  we  could  live  for  a  time  in  the  "beauti- 
ful vanished  world  of  Greek  culture"  we  could 
not  be  at  home  in  it  because  we  could  not  change 
our  identities. 

The  process  of  coming  together,  which  is  the  char- 
acteristic feature  of  the  present  stage  of  civilization, 
shows  these  stages  distinctly  traceable  in  large  out- 
line. Open-minded  foreigners  who  live  in  Japan 
will  tell  you  that  they  have  passed  through  three 
stages  in  their  attitude  toward  the  county  and 
people:  admiration  for  and  delight  in  "things 
Japanese";  followed  by  dislike  of  and  repulsion 
from  the  habits  and  ways  of  the  society  about 
them ;  then  a  discriminating  and  intelligent  re- 
gard for  fundamental  Japanese  qualities,  pleasure 
in  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  people,  in  the  gen- 
ius of  the  country.  The  first  attitude  is  an  un- 
conscious and  instinctive  response  to  an  impres- 
sion ;  the  second  is  an  instinctive  assertion  of  an 
antagonism  of  race  ideals  and  standards ;  the 
third  is  an  independent  judgment  formed  as  the 
result  of  observation  and  reflection. 


288    JAPAN  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

The  interest  in  a  civilization  is  deepened  as 
this  process  goes  on,  and  out  of  the  unshaded 
brightness  followed  by  the  obscuring  darkness  the 
landscape  finally  emerges ;  revealed  as  much  by  its 
shadows  as  by  the  light  that  unveils  it  and  the 
atmosphere  that  softens  its  harsh  outlines  and 
subdues  its  overtones. 

In  their  attitude  toward  the  West  the  Japanese 
have  been  passing  through  these  three  stages. 
There  was  always  a  group  of  uncompromising 
defenders  of  the  old  order  in  Japan,  to  whom 
Western  methods  and  manners  were  not  only 
alien  but  repugnant,  and  to  whom  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  older  civilization  was  a  patriotic  duty. 
The  tragedy  of  change  has  weighed  heavily  on 
men  and  women  of  this  temper.  Townsend 
Harris  once  gave  expression  to  the  fear  that  we 
had  inflicted  serious  injury  on  Japan  by  inter- 
fering with  an  ancient  idyllic  civilization ;  to 
many  Japanese  that  apprehension  has  deepened 
into  a  settled  conviction.  But  Japan  paid  little 
heed  to  this  protesting  minority ;  the  nation, 
recognizing  clearly  the  conditions  of  the  modern 


THREE  STAGES   OF  INTERCOURSE    289 

world,  set  out  resolutely  to  secure  those  condi- 
tions. The  oldest  nation  of  unbroken  history  in 
the  world  went  bravely  back  to  its  youth,  took 
its  place  once  more  in  school,  and  with  marvelous 
persistence  carried  into  effect  the  great  maxim 
of  the  Emperor  Mutsuhito  to  seek  knowledge 
wherever  it  may  be  found  throughout  the  world. 
If  it  did  not  lose  its  heart  to  the  West,  it  gave 
the  West  its  whole  mind.  It  was  swept  from  its 
moorings  for  a  time  by  its  determination  to  se- 
cure for  itself  the  fruits  of  Western  science,  or- 
ganization, and  practical  efficiency.  In  the  ex- 
citement of  that  first  contact  with  the  West  the 
imitation  was  carried  so  far  that  Japanese  sobriety 
of  taste  and  nice  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things 
gave  place  to  absurdities  of  dress  and  manners. 

Japan  has  been  peculiarly  hospitable  to  foreign 
ideas  and  teaching,  but  her  genius  has  been  virile 
and  persistent ;  she  has  taken  much  from  Asia, 
but  she  has  modified  and  adapted  for  her  use 
what  she  received  from  India  and  China.  In 
her  eagerness  she  accepted,  with  little  discrimi- 
nation, all  that  the  West  had  to  give  her  either 


290    JAPAN  TO-DAY   AND  TO-MORROW 

good  or  bad,  and  there  was  much  that  was 
bad. 

Then  came  the  inevitable  reaction,  and  to  blind 
admiration  succeeded  critical  and  often  cynical 
analysis  of  Western  thought  and  ideals.  In 
education,  manners,  and  art  there  was  a  reaction 
toward  old  and  characteristic  ideals  and  methods. 
Japan  began  to  see  the  defects  of  Western  civil- 
ization and  to  draw  back  from  its  materialism 
in  art  and  decoration  and  national  ideals,  its 
lack  of  discipline,  its  haste  and  indifference  to 
those  small  courtesies  which  give  life  the  charm 
of  art.  The  Japanese  have  always  been  great 
in  dealing  with  small  things ;  the  back  of  the 
lacquered  box  is  always  as  delicately  finished  as 
the  front  or  cover.  This  reassertion  of  the  Japa- 
nese spirit  has  shown  again  the  persistency  of 
that  spirit,  and  has  fortunately  come  in  time  to 
save  the  individuality  of  a  country,  to  Anglicize 
or  Americanize  which  would  impoverish  civiliz- 
ation ;  but  it  has  reawakened  many  old  antag- 
onisms and  given  new  vigor  to  dying  prejudices. 

Through  these  stages  the  East  and  the  West 


THREE  STAGES  OF  INTERCOURSE    291 

are  both  passing.  To  the  fascination  of  strange- 
ness has  followed  the  repulsion  of  strangeness, 
and  that,  in  turn,  is  being  followed  by  clear  and 
discriminating  judgment ;  impression  was  suc- 
ceeded by  prejudice,  and  now  prejudice  is  giving 
way  to  intelligent  comprehension. 


T 


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